Dark Contagion
by SolarMoonBeauty
Summary: In an attempt to supplement the forces, both teams receive several 'privates' to train. The RED trainees settle in easily, but as soon as they do, a series of devastating attacks on the RED team begins, even off the battlefield.
1. Chapter 1

The Administrator frowned, looking over a stack of papers.

"An impeccable record. What's the catch, Miss Pauling?"

"None as far as I can see, ma'am." The young lady flipped through papers, then shrugged slightly.

"Interesting. Bring her in."

The young woman entered, looking somewhat meek until she was beckoned to a chair. The awkward silence appeared to unnerve the young woman. She finally broke the silence, shyly.

"You...vanted to see me...? Is there something vrong?"

"Miss..."

"Katja, madam."

"Miss Katja. You want to be a Medic?"

"_Ja._ Er, yes. It vould be vonderful. Medicine is _sehr_...it is very important to me." She tried to control her heavy accent, and had only minimal success.

"You do know the risks involved, right, Miss Katja? Did they tell you the risks?"

"Yes. I know very vell the consequences of var. Zhat has...zhat has very much to do vith vhy I'm here."

"I see. You live in Berlin, correct? West Germany?"

"Yes, ma'am. I vas born in zhe South of Germany, but I live outside of Berlin...Is zhat a problem?"

"No. I just want to understand why you want this job."

"I...the economy is..vell, I have always vanted to heal and help others, and this..this offered more money zhan most jobs in Berlin."

"I see. Your brother, too?"

"Yes, ma'am." More silence. Katja fidgeted in her chair.

"She would need training. Do we have any openings, Miss Pauling?" There were always openings. They could always find places for mercenaries. It was just a formality, just to make it seem normal.

"We could send them to Teufort. If the boys are okay with it."

"It doesn't matter if they're okay with it." The Administrator smiled a smile that, to Katja, seemed gentle and sincere. "They do what they're told. Miss Pauling?"

"Yes. I'll get the papers. Please come with me, Miss Katja."

"Oh thank you. Thank you very much!" Katja followed the young woman out as the Administrator turned to a wall of monitors behind her.

No, the boys probably wouldn't be okay with it.

But it would certainly be amusing.


	2. Meet your Students

**Jinny the Kisaragi: **Yay! First review! Thanks so much!

Things are just going to get crazy from here on out. Buckle your seatbelts.

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own anything of TF2. Well, I downloaded it, but the game was made by Valve. Heh. Anyway, this contains original characters, violence, mutants, horror elements, and gratuitous amounts of random German. Rated T for potentially graphic medical descriptions and the Scout's mouth. The Sniper, Demoman, Engineer and Soldier keep their given names.

Meet Your Students

The plane ride had been one of the most unpleasant things she had done. She pretended not to be afraid of heights, and she knew very well what she wanted to do, but the very knowledge she was leaving that large family behind made her apprehensive.

And, well, maybe, just maybe, she was still afraid of falling.

The next step was a train. She insisted on keeping all her luggage as close to her as possible, after overhearing the people at the airport curse the baggage system, and her little brother(well, not so little, he was 19, and was taller than she was) did the same.

She still had no idea how she got the job. The lady had barely asked her any of the standard job questions...

Then again, most of her employers in Germany were happy just to get a worker who would work for such low wages.

The next step was a train. Oh, how Katja used to love trains. Used to. Things had changed quite a bit.

The train was nearly full, which made a good deal of sense, considering there were many stops to make.

"...Nozhing is empty." She murmured. There was a single room on the train car that wasn't full. That would have to do.

Honestly, she did not want to have to cart her things across the cars of a moving train.

There was one person there, and he was stretched out on the seat, staring out the window.

"Ah. _Hallo_...is..is zhis seat taken?" Katja nervously curled a lock of brown hair in her fingers and bit her lower lip. She hadn't put her hair up today, so it remained in doll-like curls heading down to her back.

"No. Want me to sit up?" The young man looked at her upside-down. He had a face full of freckles and a head of red-orange hair that was combed fairly well.

"_Nein._ This is fine." She put her bags in the little room and beckoned her wayward brother inside. She closed the door afterwards.

"So. What's your name?" The red-head asked.

Katja's brother fixed his cropped brown hair and didn't answer right away.

"My name is Katja. Zhis is my brother Lukas." She elbowed her brother lightly.

"My name's Zach. My friends call me ginger, because, well..."

"Ginger? Heehee. Vell, _Guten Morgen_, Ginger."

"So, where are you headed?" He asked, trying to pass the time.

"Teufort. I'm vorking for RED. Actually, my brother and I both...If you can call it vorking. Und du?"

"Really? That's where I'm headed. You a mercenary?"

"Vell, I used a different term...but, Ja." Katja shrugged.

"Parents don't approve?"  
"Vell, until I told zhem I vould be practicing medicine. My older brother vas absolutely not going to budge."

"There are BLU recruits in the room behind us."

"Oh, yes. Zhe 'builders'. If zhey can build so vell, vhy do they not use that skill?"

"I've never seen any BLU buildings." Lukas stood up as the train slowed, then fell back into his seat when it sped up again.

"Neither have I, actually. So...want to pester them?"

"Oh, zhat vould be vrong.."

"But funny." Lukas finished.

-Later, at Teufort-

"Why do we gotta hang around a bunch of newbies all day?" The Scout complained, putting an empty can of Bonk on a rock.

The Announcer, about an hour earlier than they usually woke up, had decided to wake everyone up and announce that they would be training recruits.

"So not fair." Like a golfer, Nathan lowered his bat near the can and lined up his shot.

"Mmmphfggmh." The Pyro answered calmly. The Boston youth assumed that the Pyro was annoyed as well. It wasn't like the mumbling firebug had told him otherwise.

"So what if they do! The BLUs can deal with newbies. I don't want to have too. Hey, heads up!" His bat cracked against the empty can and sent it flying over the train tracks.

"Don't be annoying, boy." The spy, Damien, removed a cigarette from his pack and blew a few rings of smoke into the air.

"You tryin' ta start somethin'?"

The ever-inebriated Tavish was passed out on the ground, leaving a perfectly good indent of himself in the dirt and sand. He only paused from his stupor to grunt and spew a line of gibberish.

"One, two, three, four, five...Tavish has a point. We're missing four maggots." The Soldier pointed to each of the men as he counted them.

"You understood that?" Damien asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I just hope he don't try to climb the towers again." Nathan prodded the drunken Scot with his bat, eliciting another round of gibberish. "Hey, didn't the Doc say we're s'pposed to put him on his side?"

"I am busy." Damien blew another smoke ring. "You can do it."

"Naw, Frenchie. I ain't touchin him. You remember what happened last time. So, do you know anything about the newbies, Frenchie?"

"There are three." The spy said dismissively, flicking soot off the cigarette. "A medic, a scout, and a pyro. The medic and scout insisted on not being separated. I believe they're siblings."

"So, how long do you figure before they get here?"

The train came by at an obviously unsafe speed, nearly crashing as it stopped suddenly.

"I hate that train." Nathan grumbled.

"Bmmcmm muu gmot rrumm ommer my mtt?" Pyro asked, drawing in the sand.

"I hated it before it ran over me!"

"_Miststück!" _Katja verbally assaulted the train in German before dragging her things out.

"Whooah, whoa, whoa." Nathan eyed Katja as she got off. "She's hot."

"Quiet, maggot." The Soldier slapped Nathan in the back of the head.

Katja smiled, then looked incredibly confused. Of the five men here, one was wearing a suit, one was passed out, one looked like he couldn't be more than 21, one was wearing an entire Hazmat suit, and only one looked like an actual soldier.

"Ey." Nathan leaned up against his bat, trying to look suave for one of the few ladies he'd seen since his time in Teufort. The bat slid out from under him and he fell on his face.

"Are..you okay?" Katja paid no attention to what he was trying to do, and instead focused on the fact that he had fallen on his face. Lukas and Zach started laughing.

"Uh. Right. Um, I just gotta ask. You're a girl, right?"

"Was? Do you have a problem vith me being a girl? Zhis vill not be a problem, vill it?"

"Of course not." Nathan whistled. "So, uh, how tall is your husband?"

"I am not married. Studying and vorking is very important...zhat is a strange question." She dropped the matter as her friend got out of the train. "Do you need help, Ginger?"

"I have a name." The red-head protested.

"I know that. Are you vearing your hat? You know how easily you burn, Ginger."

"Yeah, yeah.."

"The new Pyro burns easily?" The Demoman asked, laughing into his bottle.

"Why do you think I call him Ginger? Very pale, Ja." She smiled. "He actually invented the nickname, but he does not like it vhen I use it all the time."

'Ginger' groaned and sighed when she gave him a playful noogie, ruffling his red hair all over the place.

"Heh. And this?"

"This is my brother, Lukas." Katja gestured to the young man who was off investigating something shiny he had found.

The Soldier frowned. "You're a little young to be in a war, little girl."

"I have been attending a Gymnasium since I vas 17. I am not little." She said proudly, puffing out her chest and pouting.

"Should you really be fighting a war, madame?" Damien kept his cigarette in his mouth in an attempt to hide his smirk.

"Vhy else vould I be here?"

"Do you not have family to care for?"

"I am. There are seven people in our household. All adults. It is much easier to support eachother."

"Can you even fight?" Damien narrowed his eyes.

She seemed offended, and proceeded to give Damien a harsh snub. "Can you fight? Is it safe for you? They let Frenchmen into a var zone? Vat can you do, help us surrender? Cry? Blame the BLU team for your loss and plunge them into a recession?"

"You seem a little bitter about your country's past."

"Our present, you mean..." She murmured, suddenly solemn.

"Are you okay?" Damien asked, looking only somewhat concerned.

Katja snapped back to reality and socked the Frenchman in the arm as hard as she could.

"Anyvay, I vould like to find my room so I can begin my vork vith your Herr Doctor. Zere is no reason to stand around, this is var, after all. Ve vaste time." She smiled.

"That's the spirit!" The Soldier cheered. He had apparently forgotten about her snapping at him only moments earlier. "Come here, cupcake." The American's large hands grabbed Katja's arm and dragged her towards the base, describing to her in detail how he expected her to dissect and destroy the BLUs. Occasionally she would interject to protest the medical inaccuracies.

"Hey, Sally! Your nurse is here!" He shouted, kicking the door to the operating room in. The Medic was standing there, wrist-deep in the visceral organs of a man wearing a hard hat. The man turned around, his ice-colored eyes looking as if they could bore through someone's very flesh. He seemed annoyed, but grinned an off-putting grin when Katja was shoved into the room.

She turned back to find the Soldier, but he had excused himself from the room as fast as possible.

"This is new doktor?" Someone with a heavy Russian accent...and equally heavy footsteps, caught her attention.

There was a man next to the Medic, an enormous man with a gun that, at least from her standpoint, might have been as large as her younger brother.

"Doctor is so little!" The larger man marveled, putting his catcher's mitt of a hand on her head.

Katja mumbled something about 'being small-boned', before the leviathan man grabbed her around the waist and hugged her tightly.

"HA HA HA! Is funny to me!" He laughed a laugh that was equally as enormous as he was.

"Uf...my name..my name is Katja."

"Put her down, _bitte, _Nikolai." The Medic aimed his MediGun at the hard-hatted man and finished the surgery.

* * *

Katja took in a large gasp of air when she was set back down. She adjusted her outfit before extending her hand. "Um..Katja. My name is Katja."

Sorry I ended it so quickly, but this would've gone into five pages if I hadn't! Ha! Boy, can I go on and on! Sorry that it did, but I had a lot to say. Eheh.

Please read and review, things will continue right where this left off!


	3. The First Fight

"My name is Diethelm, Fräulein. You have already met Nikolai, it seems."

"Haha..._Ja. Ja, ich habe._" Katja chuckled.

"I am Heavy Weapons guy." Nikolai smiled.

"Well, now. This must be yer little student. Try not to scare her too much, Doc. Don't want her running off the very first day."

"I am not scared of him. I do not mean to interrupt, but I vould like to put my things in my room."

"Thought we forgot somethin'." Dell murmured. "Okay, just hang on.."

"Zat vill do fine." Katja looked at a room outside of the operation theater. It was spacious and mostly empty, but that could be fixed.

"The extra room outside of the operating hall? You want to sleep there?"

"Ja. Zhat vill be fine. It has a bed, desk, bookshelf...I do not need too much more."

She took her things into the room and tossed her suitcase on the bed. It didn't collapse or break. That was a good sign.

"So, little lady. You need any help with that?"

"_Nein._ It is fine. I can handle it."

"Here. Put zhis on." Diethelm handed Katja a set of clothes as she pulled her things inside.

Once she had her luggage inside, she shut the door and locked it, before throwing herself on the bed with a contented sigh. She absolutely hated that dress. It was apparently fashionable. Honestly, it didn't matter. It was hard to move in, uncomfortable, and whether or not it looked nice meant nothing. She really didn't own that many outfits. She quickly donned the shirt, tie, vest and slacks, and was lacing up the steel-toed boots when her brother rushed in.

"Katja! Katja!"

"Knock next time." She finished one boot and started on the other.

"Nathan says he wants to show us around!"

"Well, I was offerin' to show your cute-as-hell sister around, but.." Nathan muttered.

"Vhere did Ginger go to?"

"He's with the Pyro already. They're having a good time talking about burning things, probably. So, you coming?"

"I don't need to be shown around, really..."

"But you haven't been introduced to everyone." Nathan persisted, wanting some time with the first girl he'd seen in months. "Here, I'll introduce you to Mundy." He grabbed her hand and ran off, leading her to one of the huge towers.

The two of them ran up the stairs pretty fast, leaving Katja behind. She climbed the stairs after them, and looked into the room.

Lukas and Nathan were hiding behind a box and peering out at something when Katja arrived. They quickly yanked her behind the box.

"Vhat are ve looking at?" Katja asked, before being shushed by Nathan.

"Watch."

Absolute silence. Then..

"Boom, headshot." A spent shell flew out of the gun and clattered to the floor.

"Ooh." Lukas marveled silently.

"So, you're the new offsiders?" The Australian asked, not looking.

"He can hear us?" Lukas asked. Katja was the first to step out and offer the Sniper her hand. "Ja! Katja! This is my brother Lukas. My friend Ginger is not here right now."

"I'm the Sniper. You might want to keep your name to yourself, Sheila."

"Eh? You von't give me your name...?" Her disappointment passed quickly. "Vhat did you shoot?"

Mr. Mundy smiled. "Take a look, Sheila. Bagged a couple of rabbits."

"_Toll. Sehr toll." _Katja peered through the scope. "A direct hit. Your aim is very good. Vhat vill you do vith zhem?"

The Sniper paused to consider what she had asked. "Might cook 'em."

"Do rabbits taste good?" Zach asked.

"A mite tough." Then, he looked at Katja. "So, you a dinkum doctor?"

"Vell, almost...I am studying. But I am now a mercenary and I vill be living vith you all."

"Alright, then, sheila..I'll give you the drum. The Demoman is always off his face, and stay away from the showers at 7:30. That little ankle biter of a Scout isn't known for being civilized."

"I probably vill get up earlier zhan zhe men.." Katja avoided Mundy's eyes(not that she could see them anyway). "Um...it vas nice meeting you, Herr Sniper. I should go to see Herr Arzt now."

She shrunk out of the room, suddenly embarrassed to think about that. How was she going to shower at all?

"Something wrong, Kitty?" Nathan asked.

"Nozhing. Absolutely nozhing." She shook her head emphatically.

"Oh, hey Truckie." Mundy looked at the Engineer as he climbed the stairs to the tower.

"Afternoon. So, missy. You have any plans for dinner?"

"Nein...vhy?"

"We don't have to fight till tommorow. We're going out to eat. You want to come?"  
"You're inviting me?"

"DeGroot, Mundy, Myself, Jane, the Pyro, Nathan...you and the two new guys."

"The drinks are cheaper with a group." Tavish followed the Engineer, putting his arm on the shorter man's shoulders and shaking the bottle.

"I am not going to drink anything zhat he drinks."

"None of us really do." Mundy turned from his spot looking over the field. "We taking the camper?"

"Unless you want to ride in the back of ma' truck."

"I don't have an opinion on zhat." Katja shrugged.

"The van it is."

Katja was seated shotgun, looking at the city outside of Teufort base with bright eyes and a grin.

"Vhere are ve going?"

"Steak place. You ever had steak?"

"Pork, mostly." Katja answered, still with her head out the window.

"So, do you drink?" Mundy asked, turning the radio on.

"Not like he does. No one really drinks like he does."

"I hope nothing bad happens.."

"We are never going there with you again, DeGroot. Three broken windows, the bartender will need surgery, and they're going to have to find homes for all those crabs!"

"I want to ride shotgun! Can we pull over?" Nathan tugged on Katja's arm.

"I'm not moving from zhis seat until Herr Soldier gets out of the bathroom." Katja clenched her fists.

"Come on! It's my turn! Stop hogging the air conditioner! Don't be bitchy, Kitty!"

"I am not acting like a 'bitch'!"

"Yes you are! Are you on the rag or something?"

"TURN OFF THAT HIPPIE MUSIC!" The Soldier shouted from the small bathroom.

"Muutt myy mkk muh mmtles!" The Pyro put his hands up in the air, defending his choice of music.

The Engineer sat in the back, quietly strumming something that neither Katja nor Lukas could identify.

"Kitty, is it true that you're not really a doctor?"  
"I vill be. Eventually. I have had a few years in college...Zhe Announcer let me.." Katja shook her fist at Nathan. "Sit down vhen ve are driving!"

"Let's listen to Led Zeppelin! I want Kitty to hear some rock music!"

"Ve have rock in Germany..."

"HIPPIE MUSIC!"

"Get out of zhe bathroom! I have to go!" Katja looked back.

"I will not get out until you turn off that hippie music!"

"How long have we had a girl on this team?" The Demoman asked, scratching his head. "Eh?"

Katja looked at her brother, then tapped her forehead with her finger a few times. They both snickered.

"What? What? I don't get it! What did that mean?"

Tavish started snoring, and Katja burst out laughing.

"You boys are hilarious. I vas vorried about zhis at first."

"You haven't spend the night at Teufort yet, sheila." Mundy chuckled.

**First Bloom**

-Before the fight, the next morning-

"If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight!" Jane Doe launched into the same spiel he did before most battles. Only Katja was particularly excited.

"_Ja! Wir müssen!"_

"Sun Tzu said that. And I think he knows a little bit more about fighting than you do, pal."

"He did know more!" Katja kept her hands in the air like a cheerleader.

"He invented it!"

"_JA!"_

"And he perfected it!"

"To aim is not enough, you must hit!" Katja pumped her fists in the air again.

"Do not sound off unless asked to, Maggot!"

"Okay." Katja put her arms down.

"Now. Since the new maggot-lings haven't fought yet, we're going to have to teach them everything we know."

Tavish raised his hand. "Since when have we had a lassie on our team? Are ye aff yer heid?"

"I'll explain it later."

When the siren went off, Lukas and Nathan ran onto the battlefield as fast as they possibly could, shoving eachother the entire way.

The newbies didn't really branch out from their 'mentors', save for Katja. She briefly kept behind Diethelm and Nikolai, but midway through the fight she ran off to follow the Pyro and her friend Zach, whom everyone insisted on calling Ginger.

As for Lukas and Nathan, they were busy harassing the BLU Demoman. Lukas was taunting and shouting things at him, while Nathan took the Scotsman's distraction as a chance to bonk him.

Katja spied Jane headed off towards the BLU base and decided to follow him, as the Pyro team had already broken off to defend the Intel.

"You ever been in a fight, cupcake?" He asked, a somewhat-crazed glint in his eyes.

"A few times in my youth.." She grinned.

"Alright then, cupcake. Just stay behind me and try not to get picked off. They love to get the Medics first."

So, okay, 'cupcake' was now her nickname. Well, that was okay. She'd been called worse.

"Look out!"

Katja yipped as a bullet whizzed by her neck.

"Vhat is..?"

"That's a Sentry, pumpkin. Let's see you do your first kill. And look at that. There's the Engy. They're always next to their buildings. Just follow me."

Before Katja could really respond, he charged, screaming as loud as he possibly could. She chased after him, keeping her Medigun trained on him and keeping him healed while he ran face-first into range of the Sentry.

"Am I 'cupcake' or 'pumpkin' now?" She shouted over the noise, but it was doubtful that he really heard her.

"Fight like a man, you grease-monkey!" With his taunt said, the RED Soldier went after the BLU Demoman that the Scouts had been harassing earlier.

"Now, hun, I don't normally hit girls."

The Engineer slammed her in the face with his gloved hand. She chuckled and spat blood from her mouth. "Oh. I bit my tongue. If you had hit me better, you could have broken somezhing, you _alte Landsau_."

She dove forward with bonesaw in hand and went for the Texan's arm, plunging the blade into her attacker and not even flinching when the man's bone cracked noisily.

"MEDIC!" She paused and yanked the saw out of his arm. "Ve vill finish zhis later."

She ran towards the source of the voice. Nathan's face was pretty beat up, and he gave a sigh of relief when Katja came running, a frown on her face.

"Too much for you, Kitty?" Nathan grinned, revealing a few missing teeth.

"Of course not. Hold still." Katja turned the Medigun on him and a similar grin crossed her own face. "Now get out zhere! Schnell! I have an Engineer to deal vith!"

The Sentry Gun started firing like mad when Nikolai and Diethelm ran by, the larger man glowing bright red and the bullets bouncing off both Heavy and Medic. She wanted to stare, but her feet kept moving despite the fact that her brain wasn't.

"Ve are not done here!" She leapt at him with her bonesaw in hand, intending on finishing the job. "You might vant to look avay." Katja looked at the Engineer with a serious, somewhat concerned expression on her face. "It vill hurt for a second." She went for the neck this time, making sure to go swiftly and as painlessly as possible.

"Eat this!" As soon as she was done with the Engy, she was kicked across the face by someone.

Katja flew backwards, landing on her butt. "Ow..Ow.."

"Hey! You're a girl, too!"

"Mmn..." Katja looked up. Her attacker was in fact a girl. She was slighter than the male soldier, but still stocky and muscular. That made sense. Underneath that bulky cobalt helmet was a bob of shiny black hair and a pair of blue eyes.

"Urgh...vho are you?"

"Private Leah, at your service!" She saluted, and the helmet wavered on her head. "You must be the RED Medic, Katja."

"Ja..." Katja got to her feet uneasily, not sure why this BLU soldier was acting so friendly.

"I'm glad to meet'cha. Oh, but you're after the Intel, right? So, we gotta fight now."

* * *

"Ja. Ve can do zhat." Katja smirked. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the the two Scouts head for the Intel. Well, she could be a distraction.

Whoo-wee! Look at this!

A few German notes.

'Alte Landsau' is literally 'Old country sow'.

And no, I can't tell you what happened when they went out. It's much more fun to come up with your own ridiculous idea, right?


	4. Give me a 'Hell Yeah!

(This chapter contains descriptions of some pretty nasty fighting, including a description of a backstab and a bone dislocation. Also, this contains a bit more swearing than the other chapters.)

"I have a bonesaw." Katja threatened, jabbing the instrument in the air.

Leah frowned and produced a shovel.

"I wanted to try out the guns, but if you've only got that.."

At any other time, she would've found this ridiculous. Fighting with saws and shovels?

After sizing eachother up, Katja was the first to react, sprinting at the Soldier with an adrenaline rush she didn't know she had.

Leah was slower than the Medic, and she could hear the sudden woosh of air as the saw careened past her head and down, catching the fabric on her shoulder and tearing it. She took this opportunity to bring the shovel up, aiming for Katja's chin. It was a cheap, risky shot, so Leah wasn't at all surprised when it missed.

Katja jerked her head back, narrowing avoiding a broken jaw or nose.

Both girl turned their heads briefly as someone plunged off the battlement. A young man with black hair, dressed in the typical garb of the BLU Sniper, shot out his arms to try and grab the edge of the tower, but continued plummeting.

"Logan! Land on...oh, never mind."

For a second, both girls stared at the spot where the youthful Sniper hit...then Leah punched Katja in the arm and the two started swinging and stabbing at eachother.

Katja's saw made the first bloom, catching Leah in the shoulder.

Leah countered, crashing the shovel into the less muscular young woman's head, producing a crack when her jawbone either dislocated or cracked on the left side.

Whether it was adrenaline or just fury that allowed her to ignore the pain and general discomfort that came from her jaw, Katja rushed forward and slammed her elbow into Leah's stomach, knocking the air out of her. She took this opportunity to grab her jaw in her hand and pop her dislocated mandible back into place.

Katja suddenly yelped and arced her back, her arm muscles twitching and contracting unevenly.

The butterfly knife cut through her upper back at an angle, slicing easily through skin and muscle. The angle was perfect, skewering the gray matter somewhere in the upper thoracic curve. Then, suddenly, with a violent jerk, the knife went higher, taking out the phrenic nerve with it. There wasn't a lot of breath left in her lungs, so she quickly choked out something.

"_Wir haben Ihren Koffer."_

She made a noise somewhere between a gasp and a shriek, but it was choked off by her sudden inability to breath.

"Joe, I was fighting her!" Leah poked the uncloaked BLU spy in his chest.

"Uh, sorry...you looked like you needed help there. Did I do it right?"

"Too high. Was that a backstab or a stab in the neck? Didn't the Spy teach you how to do it?"

"I thought it'd be less painful and much quicker if I went higher.." He shook his hand, trying to get the spinal fluid and blood off his hand.

"Did you hear vhat she said?" The BLU Medic asked as he brushed a lock of hair out of his face and re-adjusted his square glasses.

"Huh? Well, no, I didn't understand it."

"She vas a distraction! She said zhat zhey.."

The loudspeaker turned on with the squeak of microphone feedback.

"**Alert! The enemy has taken the Intelligence!"**

"GAH!" Leah threw her hands up and ran. "Someone find that briefcase!"

There was a brief pain, something she'd never felt before. It was almost like her broken body parts were moving backwards, back into place.

"Ugh." Katja shook her head, looked back and forth, then realized that she was, in fact, alive. Right, right, you couldn't die here. She had no idea why that was, but she wasn't about to question it. She felt her back, ran her fingers down it, feeling the solidity of her spine, and touched the side of her face, making sure her jaw was still intact.

"DAMN! You're like a car crash in slow motion! What's the matter, you freakin' stupid?" She recognized the rapid-fire jabbering of Nathan, and emerged from the Respawn room(after shooting a disapproving look at a calender with half-naked women).

Nathan and Lukas were chasing eachother, taking advantage of their ability to keep up with one another to put together a brilliant relay.

Their enthusiasm was infectious. Katja found herself running out and spraying the boys in the beam of the Medigun as they ran by.

"**You failed."**

The Administrator's voice was as cold and condescending as ever. Heilwig threw his hands up in the air and groaned. The BLU Heavy punched someone, and the Soldier screamed at whomever got the brunt of the Heavy's misdirected anger. On the opposite side of the battlefield, Nathan grabbed Katja in a tight bear hug, causing her to yelp and nearly punch him in the face, thinking he was attacking her.

-Later-

She had a fair amount of free time on her hands. It was oddly refreshing. Dressed in her white shirt and vest, she was digging through rocks in a pile, looking for animals.

"Careful, shiela. There are snakes around here."

She really hadn't noticed the Sniper, sitting quietly in front of a fire, poking at it.

Katja nudged a medium-sized rock with her foot, uncovering a dust-colored rattlesnake. She grabbed it behind the head, right at the nape of the neck, and held its tail with her other hand.

"Nevermind, then. You planning on making that your pet?"

"Perhaps. So, vhat are you doing? Trying to avoid everyone?"

He made a silent grunt. That was most likely the end of their conversation. She began walking inside, still holding the rattlesnake. She'd have to find a spot for it if she wanted to keep it.

"Ya did good on your first day, lassie. I never did see you, though, so I don't really know how ya did, wee bairn." Tavish handed her a beer can, causing her to let go of the snake's tail.

Katja smiled slightly, took a sip of the beer, then made a face.

"What's up? Don't drink beer?"

"Nein. Zhis tastes like tap vater...flavored tap vater."

"So someone else agrees? We may actually get along, madame." Damien chuckled.

"Ye like the strong stuff! Och, lassie, ye may be aff yer heid, but yer alright with me."

"Danke.."

"I love this doctor!" Diethelm struggled to breathe as Nikolai hugged him as tight as possible. Then, Nikolai turned, patting Katja on the head with his baseball mitt of a hand. "You are great doctor, too, malenʹkaya devochka. You are so tiny, though! Tiny doktor and little brother should eat more, grow strong and big."

"Come on, man, he's the only one who can keep up with me!" Nathan tried to push the Heavy, but wasn't able to make the large man budge at all.  
"Excuse me, I need to.." Someone bumped Katja(she honestly couldn't see which of the men it was) and sent the wriggling serpent flying.

"Oh, god! Where'd it go?"

"Guys, don't touch anything!"

Spirits weren't as high at the BLU base, but that was understandable.

The two Snipers were seated side-by-side, both frowning. The younger hadn't bothered to cut his long-ish black hair and was sipping coffee from a mug he'd stolen from one of the others. The other absentmindedly rubbed his unshaven chin. He'd run out of razor blades a few days ago and was eagerly awaiting the chance to get some new ones, just so he wouldn't have to keep sharing with Logan, the younger Sniper.

Logan, the Sniper's 'offsider' was the first to speak up. "Where were you, man? You missed dinner."

"I vas busy.." Heilwig turned his head down with a grimace and looked at his teammates from under his eyebrows. The young medic folded his bandaged hands over one another.

"Hey, did you hurt yourself?" The new Spy, James, had removed his mask and had revealed a head of frizzing brown hair. He frowned, staring at the Medic's hands.

"A burn from zhe new RED Pyro." He mumbled.

"That Medic chick certainly did a number on you, Leah." The BLU Scout, Alex snickered.

"You got beat up by her little brother, maggot." Leah shot back, punching him in the shoulder, causing Sébastien, the older spy, to snort.

"I must teach you not to be so gentle, James. Like pithing an animal. Like, say, a Cornish game hen.." He said, chuckling.

"Vhy vould you pith a hen?"

"So, what exactly did she say when she got backstabbed?"

"Hm? Oh, it vas 've have your briefcase'."

"Mail call, maggots!" The older BLU Soldier, with a scowl on his face, entered the room with a stack of letters and a package in his hands. He threw the package at the Scout and tossed envelopes at the other team members. The last one he had the decency to hand to Leah.

"Good job, Private. Your country commends you. I expect a disembodied head on my desk by next week. Do I make myself clear?" He saluted her, a crazed grin plastered on his face. Leah returned the salute to the paranoid patriot with an equally unhinged grin.

"Crystal, sir!"

"Lunatics." The BLU Sniper, who'd been quiet up until now, took a swig from his #1 Sniper mug and mumbled into the coffee.

"Sweet!" Alex ripped the paper off his package. "Ma sent cookies!"

Several men snickered, but the Sniper scooted over in hopes of getting a cookie from his diminutive, annoying friend.

"Did you not get anything, little Heilwig?" The Heavy looked over at the BLU Medic.

"Eh? Nein, nein, nothing today." He shook his head.

"Do you ever get anything?"

"Of course I do. I just don't like reading it out loud."

"I can't believe I missed the catfight. I had to chase after the Intel. Y'know, do some real work?"

* * *

"Oh, shut up. Are those chocolate?"

* * *

* * *

* * *

Whoo, three pages! Yeesh. We're kicking this story into high gear! Don't worry, the 'horror' part comes into play later. I can't just launch into nightmare fuel right away. 


	5. The Monster

On RED, we have two Medics(Katja and Diethelm), two Pyros(Ginger is the only one with the name) and two Scouts(Nathan and Lukas, and for BLU, there are two Soldiers(Leah and John), two Spies(Sébastien and James), and two Snipers(Cameron and Logan). I'll get to the BLU Team soon, but you'll meet some more of them in this chapter.

And I'm sure that I don't need to add the warning, but better safe than sorry. Despite the fact that this is an adventure story, this chapter contains a little bit of d'aww, which reveals a little bit about Katja's backstory and upbringing. Heheh.

(Oh, by the way, did you know that when you have ellipses, you're apparently supposed to put a space between the ellipses and the end punctuation? It makes sense.)

Uh, so, without further ado, enjoy! Hugs and cookies!

The Administrator sighed. "You're hovering, Miss Pauling."

"Um, well, there was a disappearance in Hydro."

"Another one?"

"Yes, the, ah..the BLU Spy from Hydro has gone missing. Do you think it could be a Respawn malfunction?"

"I doubt it...find them a replacement."

"A...replacement? I could, but the only free one we have isn't skilled at all... ."

"We don't need super soldiers, Miss Pauling. Killing isn't a glamorous business. Unskilled or not, at least he knows how to murder."

"Alright. Should we get someone out to investigate?"

"No one wants to go out to the battlefields, Miss Pauling. Even if you paid them. That's why I hired those children."

"I also wanted to talk about Katja.."  
"The German girl?"

"Yes. She can't be a doctor. She's much too young.."

"I saw her credentials. Several of our Medics operate without a license. A few of them would be considered clinically insane. She has spent 7 years in college in Berlin, and she has shown herself to be dedicated, motivated, and trained. It would be foolish to turn down potential...and sanity. She just needs experience."

"Alright..."

This was supposed to be the time of day when they could relax, but the operation theater was on edge. Katja had almost climbed on the table to get a better look at the small dove that was seated on the table.

"No. Ve have nothing to vorry about. This bird is a fledgeling. He cannot fly yet, but he is strong enough to leave his nest. Vhat happened to the parents?"

"Dead."

Katja sighed. "…I suppose I vill do it, zhen. Can you go to the store for me?" She scribbled a few ingredients on a piece of paper and handed it to the large Russian. "A young bird needs to be fed often, especially at this point. It vill beg for food often."

He was used to carrying out orders from the doctor and only the doctor, but he would do this. The birds were important.

"Da. Will bird be safe until then?"

"Yes. His crop is full and he is a strong little zhing." She scooped the bird up in her gloved hands and carried it into her room. She'd cared for baby chickens before, but doves and pigeons were different. The basics were the same. Keep the baby warm, feed it on time, provide bedding and prevent splay legs.

It was just like home…

She hoped she'd at least get some sleep tonight.

On both sides, the living quarters were positioned not too far away from the forts. These went untouched during battle. Even between the two barbaric factions, it was understood that battle was to stay on the battlefield. No one dared make a move when it wasn't officially time to fight.

Both teams had finally settled, in some manner, and there was relatively little noise.

Katja was seated at her desk, her head nestled on a Captain America comic book she had swiped from the Scout earlier that night, with her brown hair untied and draped all over the place. She had finally found that rattlesnake and was keeping it in a small plastic tub that she had found while rummaging through a pile of junk that the boys had thrown out. She would have to ask why they had so many magazines about naked women. None of her brothers did. The little fledgeling had fallen asleep in a small shoebox, seated on a small piece of wood.

'Mister Jane Doe' as he had told everyone to call him, slept with his shovel close to him in case the 'goddamn commies' showed up unannounced.

The motor-mouthed Scout from Boston, Nathan, fought with his new German roommate over the bunks, and was rather glad he could keep the top bunk, as he already kept a reserve stash of Bonk and a few dirty magazines there. Lukas had accepted defeat with grace, and was sleeping with his hat askew on his head of messy brown hair.

For once, their Demoman hadn't passed out in his own drool somewhere in the kitchen and was actually in his own bed, but whether he was sleeping soundly or just passed out was hard to tell.

The older Pyro, who still remained nameless, kept his suit on while sleeping. Ginger, in what was possibly an odd act of friendship or some seal of trust, had taken to wearing an oxygen mask about like his mentor.

In the same venue as Katja had done, Dell was slumped over in a chair with a wrench and a blueprint lying next to him and his hardhat at an angle where it obscured his eyes.

As for Nikolai and Diethelm, the latter had just recently fallen asleep, his hands clad in rubber gloves and doves dotting every available surface, while the former was snoozing on the floor as he had given his bed to Sascha and about two or three doves.

The rooms of both the Sniper and Spy were empty. The Sniper had never taken to his room and slept in his camper.

As for Damien, he had stepped outside to smoke a cigarette. The rambunctious nature of his teammates was always a little too much, and now with extra teammates, it was enough to drive him mad.

He stared at the BLU base across the way, wondering how bad things had gotten. Were they so scrapped for good mercenaries that they started hiring children? (Even if Katja was, as she constantly reminded him, 23 and therefore not a child, he still decided he'd call her a child.)

It was unusual, he doubted that she could've gone through college that fast. Definitely suspicious.

A pair of forms moving by the BLU base caught his interest. He recognized them almost immediately, even in the low light. A giant, hulking, colossus of a man, unmistakeably the BLU Heavy, followed a slim, bony young man. The BLU Medic was either a very young or a very weak man.

Damien started to walk forward boredly, knocking some of the soot and ash off his cigarette.

"Spy." The BLU Heavy grunted, looking odd without his trusty minigun.

"_..Grüss Gott." _ The spindly Medic muttered, turning to the Spy and extending his hand for a handshake, but the Heavy put his large hand in front of his fragile friend.

"Are you here to gloat about today, Spy? "

"Evgeniy, please, I am sure he vould not risk zhat." He touched the much larger man's beefy arm a few times.

"No. I just wanted to know why you two were out."

"We could ask you the same thing, Spy."

"I find my teammates annoying." He inhaled on his cigarette. "You two?"

"I heard somezhing. Evgeniy came to help." He put his hand out again, looking a little offended when the Spy didn't return his handshake.

"I heard you got new recruits, too."

"Da. Sniper, Spy, and Soldier. "

"Hm. We have an impudent Medic, her spastic brother, and another mumbling psychopath."

"Oh. I saw your new Medic..she seemed nice. Very smart."

"She nearly took the arm off your Soldier-girl and you think she is nice?"

"Leah seemed to zhink so. She vas excited to have a girl on RED. Something about comic books and superheroes. Sometimes I have trouble vhen it comes to English...oh, vere you zhe one who attacked our new Sniper?"

"...Possibly." He lit another cigarette, prompting Heilwig to wave the smoke away.

"Were you the one making noise?" Evgeniy asked, scooting the Medic away from the Spy.

"No. I was trying to avoid it. What kind of noise?"

The idea of someone or something prowling around the base didn't sit well with any of them.

"Water splashing. It was maybe a big rat."

"Rats can carry parasites. That is dangerous as vell." Heilwig murmured, still looking uncomfortable to be out here alone.

The three of them were silent briefly, the Spy looking curious and slightly disgusted at the same time.

"Out of curiosity, how dangerous would a sewer rat be?"

"If it is not rabid, then we do have to worry about fleas, Toxoplasmosis, Leptospirosis, and I have read about a worm that lives in rat lungs, but no one has identified it yet."

This made the Spy grimace.

"We put traps in the sewer for rats. It might be an intruder." This thought made both Heavy and Medic tense.  
"What fool would invade this dirt pile?"

The BLU Heavy stared at Damien, keeping the fragile-looking Medic behind him.

"No one else is out, Spy."

"You have a point. I will help you look, but I will not enjoy it, nor will I set foot in the putrid water."

"Evgeniy, zhis is a good idea. He is good at sneaking. He vill be able to tell if somezhing is following us."

Damien smiled inwardly. This Medic's obsessive need to be kind did pay off.

The three wandered into the enormous, broken pipe that no one had bothered to fix. The system seemed much too overcomplicated. It was designed to allow someone to get into the other base, but it still had to conform to the general definition of a sewer and storm drain, with crisscrossed pipes leading every which way, each one with a large wheel to control the flow of whatever they had in them. No one bothered to check to see what the pipes did, either because they were focused on the intelligence, or unwilling to risk backing up the entire sewer system.

There was a splash somewhere in the distance, followed by a series of smaller splashes.

Evgeniy's minigun barrel began rotating as the hefty man prepared to unleash a volley of bullets on whoever was foolish enough to snoop around a warzone like Teufort.

A half-dead rat skittered out of the darkness, soaked to the bone, slipping past the feet of the three mercenaries, causing the Medic and Spy to squeal in terror and the latter to tumble into the water.

The Spy began swearing, mostly in French, though both BLUs suspected that there were a few other dialects in there that were unfamiliar to them.

"Are you okay?" Heilwig knelt down and offered his hand to the waterlogged spook.

"No." He said, a grimace on his face, before storming out.

Evgeniy nudged the dying rat back into the water to put it out of its misery, and lifted his partner over one shoulder to keep him away from the rats that scared him.

"Just rats, Heilwig. It is time for bed now."

"It seemed too big for a rat." He mumbled.

Nathan woke up to the smell of something cooking. He then looked around the room. Something was missing. Sure, the room was messy as hell, but he was absolutely sure where everything was.

His comic books were missing.

Nathan shuffled uneasily out of his bed and walked down the hall in his socks. It wasn't like a Spy to steal something like that, and besides, no one really intruded in the living quarters.

The kitchen smelled vaguely like eggs, and there was Katja reading over a book and peering into a boiling pot.

"Hey, Kitty, have you seen my comic books? They disappeared last night."

"You lent zhem to my brother. I borrowed zhem from him. I put them on the table."

He rummaged through the stack, trying to make sure they were all there.

"Did you only read the Captain America ones?"

"I zhought zhat vas zhe most interesting." She answered, upping the setting on the blender.

"So, uh, what is this?" He asked, peering in the blender.

"Baby food, egg yolk, oils…" Katja said, preparing a puny syringe.

"What? Why would you…?"

"It is not for you." She added, retrieving a small shoebox and placing it on the counter.

Nathan peered inside. A small white dove was moving uneasily on a chunk of wood inside the box.

She took 10 mL of the mixture in the syringe and looked it over.

"So, is this one of the doc's?"

"No, I am caring for Steve now."

"His name is Steve?"

"Steve Rogers," Katja answered, putting the syringe down the bird's throat. "Be quiet for a minute. I need to concentrate."

"Oh. I was gonna say, the Engineer always does it when we have extra time for breakfast. He's one of the few that can cook."

"You cannot cook?" Katja didn't make eye contact with Nathan, paying more attention to the baby bird.

"That's my ma's job!"

"Everyone in my family can cook, sew, and care for the livestock," Katja said, removing the syringe and watching the bird closely. When it didn't beg for more, she touched the bird's neck and whatever she felt there seemed to satisfy her.

"You live on a farm?"

"Ja, I did," Katja answered dismissively, putting the bird food mixture in a tattered black bag and seeming not to notice as the bird hopped and wriggled up her arm.

"So, what happened between you and the chick yesterday?"

"She seems nice," Katja answered, fluffing out the bird's feathers. "Your feathers are very thin. Perhaps you need something else to keep you warm."

"Nice? You two had a catfight yesterday. Nice?"

"Yes. I think she is nice."

Someone knocked (very loudly) on the door, making the two of them jump. When no one answered the door in the span of three seconds after the first knock, another round of ear-splitting bangs started up.

Katja cautiously opened the door to see Leah standing there with a shovel (and corresponding marks on the door).

"Vhy did you pound on our door vith a shovel?" Katja asked as if this was perfectly normal.

"Did you hear? Someone disappeared in Hydro. They're calling off battles today because they've got to investigate. I have to take you somewhere!"

"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK! PROTECT THE BRIEFCASE!" The RED Soldier rushed out of his room with weapon in hand, fully convinced that the vampire Nazis were invading, and obviously going after Nathan and Katja first, because monsters always attacked girls and Nathan hadn't stopped following the girl since yesterday.

"Did you get bitten by the Nazis yet?" He asked, putting a thankfully empty rocket launcher in Katja's face.

"If zhere vas a Nazi here, I vould saw his arms off." She answered, before being dragged off by the BLU Soldier.

"They always take the foreigners first," The crazed patriot said with a mixture of sadness and remembrance in his voice.

"I did not know we were allowed off the base," Katja said, appearing content to be dragged into whatever the BLU had in mind. If they weren't fighting, then she supposed it was okay.

The male BLU Soldier, who insisted on being called 'John', briefly stared at the two girls, before approaching them and patting Leah on the head.

"You learn fast." Then, he poked Katja in the nose. "She won't take your head off today, Fritzi."

"Okay," Katja replied, a little confused but not upset.

"I think you should meet Wigs. Then we should go out and do something."

Katja wasn't exactly in a position to complain.

"Hey Wigs!"

"Heilwig." The black-haired, skinny Medic adjusted his golden-framed glasses and looked up from whatever he was doing.

"Look what I found." Leah presented the baffled Medic to her BLU counterpart.

"Uh, Hallo." Katja extended her hand for a handshake. Instead of doing this, Heilwig leaned down and kissed her hand. "Gruss Gott." He smiled slightly, but that was over quickly.

Katja smiled.

"He needed a friend from Germany because he's always a grump."

Heilwig grimaced slightly. Leah had told him what they were about to do, and honestly he couldn't stand being out in public. People stared, and he'd rather be inside reading. Everyone was very much aware of the mercenaries, and most of them were terrified.

"It is not a very good idea, Leah. There are not many people out there who like us." He remembered that there were signs, loudly proclaiming the mercenaries to be psychopaths and demanding them to leave. It just made him uncomfortable, the world could be so violent, and they didn't have respawn outside of the forts.

"Please, no one will know! Besides, they might go easier on you because we're girls." Leah pat the frail and fragile-looking doctor on the back.

"I wanted to go look at books anyway. Nathan vill probably not let me steal his comics again, and zhe doves need extra seed. Steve has enough food for zhe rest of zhe veek, fortunately."

"Steve?" Heilwig asked. He knew about the doves, but why 'Steve'?

The small dove peered out from a pocket on her white shirt and pecked at her tie.

"Oh, my." Heilwig smiled a little.

"This will not be good." Evgeniy frowned as Leah dragged both Medics off by their arms.

Behind them, all was not well.

The water in the darkest depths of the sewers bubbled and writhed as if it were alive.

The emerging creature was not normal, in any sense of the word. It was a twisted mockery of the human form, with tattered rags that were once clothing hanging off its body. The creature's maw opened up and emitted a tortured, warbling noise from the back of the throat. The scent of blood and decay mingled with the smell of stagnant storm water. Blood stained the water as it moved listlessly along the piping to be cleaned and treated. It was not out of the ordinary. This was Teufort, blood was a part of life.

The once-human dragged itself through the water with great effort, chest heaving each time. The rats in the sewer, accustomed to the intrusion of people, fled in terror, deserting the sinking ship that was the pipe system.

The monster was loose…and starving.


	6. A Night on the Town

**It's a little…okay, a lot late, but it's a late Christmas present of sorts. I've been busy, but updates will be coming. I have a lot of classes to deal with, unfortunately. I'm very glad to have made this one longer.**

Even if the group had thought that they were alone, there were eyes everywhere. Nothing escaped the Administrator.

"You aren't worried, ma'am? What if people talk?"

"Think about it for a minute…the little Medic lived her entire life in Germany. The first people she met were you and I. All she knows about America is what she's read in books. As for the soldier, her family works for Mann Co. She knows nothing but fighting and mercenary work. Anything little Miss Ulrike would hear from Leah would be about the greatness of fighting eachother. Keep watch on them, though. If anything unsavory happens…"

"Understood…and what about the BLU Medic?"

"He wouldn't say anything…after all; he does have a bit of a secret to keep, and his little Heavy is a fool who wouldn't want his friend's secret to get out."

Miss Pauling turned back to the pictures from yesterday's fight. They seemed to be at eachother's throats, certainly not the best of friends. They hadn't even used their long-ranged weapons; they had gone at it with their melee weapons.

They were the only girls (unless someone was very good at lying about their gender), it made sense that they would seek eachother out. They had that much in common, it probably made becoming friends easier…of course, if they weren't rookies, they would be in monumental trouble.

It was just as bad as Heilwig thought. There were eyes watching almost everywhere. It was hard not to notice them. Even without the coat, people still recognized the color-coding. Most of the attention was turned to Leah and Katja, who were severely out of place, Leah still in her fatigues and Katja wearing everything of her uniform but the long labcoat and a frazzled-looking dove on one shoulder. He leaned his head down, trying to make himself as small as possible. He wasn't used to being on the outside. He'd always been looking out from the inside. He stopped thinking about that.

His gaze shifted to a building that he recognized instantly. It was a dance studio. A pair of dancers was performing an excellent _pas de deux_ that he could almost immediately tell was from Swan Lake. The young man's technique was off…dancing that way would just earn him a pulled muscle. How anyone could ignore a blatant mistake like that was beyond him…

Certainly his parents would have never accepted that mistake, and neither did he. What kind of fool was teaching these students?

"Hey, whatcha looking at, Wigs?" Leah scooted up next to him. "Music store?"

"Oh, yes." He shook his head. "I was distracted."

"Come on, I want to take you guys somewhere. You guys know how to eat fast food, right?"

"Certainly not!" Heilwig said emphatically, shaking his head.

They continued through town in this manner, yelling and shouting at eachother and causing a ridiculous ruckus for everyone in their path.

-Meanwhile, back at the base-

A blue-suited figure pranced about in the sewers, sloshing through the waist-deep water and humming some sort of Italian-sounding song that was muffled and unrecognizable thanks to the heavy gasmask strapped across its face. This gasmask blocked out other sights and sounds, making the world a little bubble of solitude. The cheery Pyro had been told there were vermin in the sewer and, of course, it was its job to get rid of the pests. It planned on releasing anything it found instead of killing it.

The water bubbled and frothed behind the cheerful firebug. The sewer dweller was not happy at the intrusion. A shadowy limb snaked out from the darkness and gripped one of the two tanks on the Pyro's back, piercing it.

"Mmmph?" The BLU Pyro heard the sharp hiss of the oxygen in the left tank being released into the air. Those tanks were strong, they didn't just spring leaks. With terror in its eyes, the Pyro turned back to face whatever was behind it. The light was dim, and the only thing illuminating the attacker was the blue Intelligence sign in the back, which only silhouetted the creature. The 'enhanced' vision provided by the optical mask only made the dark blob stand out against a background of pastel pink. It looked like it was shaped like a man, but it just didn't make sense.

The 'head' opened up to reveal a maw of jagged teeth, and solid tendrils came off the creature's body, some of them branching out into two or three other tendrils like some animated kudzu vine. Without warning, several inky-black tendrils lashed out and grabbed the suited mercenary, who started a round of muffled screams and shouts. The Pyro wasn't about to be killed by this thing, and it reached for the Scorch Shot. Something sharp dug into the skin through the suit, causing blood to drip. For a few precious seconds the Pyro could wrestle its hand free to reach the Scorch Shot, which was just enough time to pull the trigger. The bright flash seemed to do more damage than the actual shot, as the creature recoiled and dropped the Pyro, who turned tail and fled.

As soon as the suited one was out of the sewer, it covered a spot where the suit had ripped open that was dripping blood. It looked from one base to the other and then turned back to the sewer.

"Hmmphhmm mmph hm." The Pyro touched the ripped part of the suit. The wound was deep. It would have to be treated. The BLU began running towards the RED base.

It was about that time the group came back, Leah chatting excitedly to a flustered, somewhat confused Katja. The enhanced vision provided by the Pyro's gasmask allowed hir to see the young RED doctor meandering through the sand of the desert.

Katja wasn't exactly sure what was going on when she saw the BLU Pyro running towards the base, but she immediately dropped everything when she saw it collapse. BLU or not, she was not about to ignore someone in need. She pulled the gasmask off and listened for breathing. There was a heartbeat, but no air movement.

She hoped this would work.

"Whoa!" Nathan gaped. Katja ignored him and tilted the Pyro's head to allow her to breathe. Oh, it was a girl. When no air passed through her airways, Katja pinched the young woman's nose and breathed into her lungs. Nathan said something behind her but it went largely ignored. Leah moved over and retrieved something from the Pyro's harness.

"Here. Look at this thing." Leah handed Katja an inhaler. That would do. That would do just fine. Katja gave the girl a few puffs from the inhaler and moved away when the woman started to stir. Katja finally got a good look at the disoriented and confused BLU Pyro. She was a young lady with short red hair, full of cowlicks and singed slightly on the ends. There was a medium-sized scar going over the bridge of her nose and to her cheeks. She groaned and gagged a few times.

"Are you okay?" Katja put her hand on the Pyro's shoulder.

"Si." She muttered, rubbing her head. "…Where am I?"

"Still in Teufort. You collapsed."

"Oh, yeah…" She groaned again. "Can…can I speak to you two in private, _dottoressa?"_

"Of course we can talk privately." Katja looked at Nathan, who was staring at her. He wasn't going to say it, but he was still ogling the impromptu 'kiss'. Everyone knew Diethelm was nuts, and Katja was working with him, so she might have been just a little bit nuts herself. After about five seconds, he took the hint and left the room.

"It's Fiammetta, by the way, _dottoressa_. I, uh…I have asthma. It's not usually bad, but I was hyperventilating and I couldn't get any oxygen from the mask…"

"I see…why were you hyperventilating?"

"I was attacked, and my oxygen supply was damaged. I was going to go see you about getting attacked because…well, honestly because you're a girl. Heilwig's a sweetheart, but I'd just be more comfortable with a girl doctor."

"Hey, Fiammetta, are you bleeding?" Leah peered at the spot that the girl had been covering.

"Huh? Oh, yes. That was where I got attacked. It's pretty nasty."

"I see. Who attacked you?" Katja leaned in so she could try to see the wounds better.

"It was more of a 'what'. I had no idea what that was." She shook her head. "I should probably just show you." She unbuckled her belt and started to remove her flame-retardant suit.

"Oh my." Katja covered her mouth. There were a series of marks, some still bleeding, on her stomach. It was odd; her wounds looked like little rings…

Fiammetta tried to smoothe her cowlicks, which proved completely impossible given that her hair was full of them.

"I didn't see exactly what it was, but it was everywhere. If I turned around, it was right there. It was very dark inside, but I could sort of see the shape. It looked like a person, but honestly I don't think that's what it was."

Katja observed the ring-like wounds, scribbling the pattern onto a notebook. After she had done so, she went straight for the medical cabinets. She could easily heal this with a health kit, but she wanted to see if there was anything in there. Those were peculiar markings; she had to see if there was any sort of debris or shrapnel remaining in there…

Katja dabbed at the area with a tissue and gently removed what appeared to be a tooth or claw of some kind from it. These circular wounds were in several places around Fiammetta's body, and there were smaller puncture wounds. Katja investigated these as well. Again, she found a curved claw-like structure.

"Hm. You struggled, didn't you? You seem to have injured vhatever it vas that attacked you." When she was sure that there were no large foreign objects remaining, Katja applied a bottle's worth of blue gel onto the Pyro's wounds. They healed quickly.

"Thank you, doctor." Fiammetta smiled.

"Just be careful out there…" Katja stared intently at the 'claw' she had removed. She had many theories about what it could be, but none of them made any sense at all.

"So, I guess I'm going back, then?" Leah asked, looking at Fiammetta and shrugging a little.

"Vell, just be careful. And stay out of that sewer…I vant to see it, too." Katja inspected the claws. She didn't like this…it just seemed abnormal somehow. If it was in a sewer, what did that mean for the team? The section they used during Intel capturing was only a small, closed-off section of the massive sewer system that ran the whole base. If that creature could get in and out, it was feasible that it could go almost anywhere in the base...or worse.

She didn't know much about sewers, but she immediately wondered if it could get out into town. It had attacked Fiammetta, who was obviously a threatening person in her full flame-retardant suit and massive flamethrower. It actually managed to put a mark on her! Imagine what it could do to a child!

Katja had to sit down for a second to collect her thoughts. According to Fiammetta's story, it fled when she fought back too much and it had tried to crush her abdomen. Those were animal traits, it tried to kill her quickly and when she proved too dangerous, it fled. Then again, it had gone for her oxygen tank first, even when simply just grabbing her would have been easier. She knew animals; those were easy to deal with. If there was one thing she learned growing up on the farm, it was animals.

The sky was a much darker blue than they were used to, and the clouds were swirling, each a different shade of the same hue and all of them moving haphazardly. Katja stared up at the sky, a mug in her hands, and examined the scenery outside the window. The storm was obvious. She was concerned as to how any rain would affect the dry area. After a few minutes, she decided she didn't care about the rain anymore and turned her attention back to her little desk. She hadn't even torn into her new comic book yet. She was intent on figuring out what exactly had caused the BLU Pyro's injuries. She'd seen that sort of shape before, but the only thing she knew that could cause something like that…well, it was just impossible.

She sipped from her mug, sighing and relaxing as plain black tea hit her taste buds, filling her with nostalgia. She was a little homesick, but only when she really had time to think about it. It had only been a few days, and Katja already felt used to the psychotic episode that was the norm around here. She didn't even look up when the door opened.

"Evening, Pyro…tea?" She held up the cup, shaking it slightly to try and keep the gibbering pyromaniac focused on it.

'He' said something that could have been 'no thanks' or 'mole tanks' and Katja wasn't going to judge it either way.

"Pyro…vhat does zhis look like to you?" She had been doodling the peculiar wounds on a sheet of paper for a few minutes now.

"Mmmph-mmmph mmh mmh mmph?" Katja still wasn't exactly sure what he was saying, but she could usually grasp the basics. This was not one of those times. Nevertheless, when the Pyro leaned in and started flipping through her book, she allowed it.

"HUDDAH HUDDAH HUH!" The RED Pyro suddenly shouted, waving his (or was it her?) arms wildly. She (or was it a he?) showed Katja a page in a book and pointed to the illustrations on the page confidently. A squid…that _was_ the first thing that came to her mind, it made sense, but squid lived in the ocean and the only source of water happened to be a little brackish swamp…not counting the sewer, of course, but…

"Are you sure?"

Now the Pyro was scribbling on Katja's paper furiously, chattering all the while. She let the mumbling mercenary work. Then, (s)he presented hir drawing to the doctor. It was a drawing of a person, as far as Katja could tell, with massive tendrils…

"Have you seen this before? Show me. Tell me! I have to know!" Katja's interested had been piqued. Even if this was some imaginary delusion shared by the Pyros, the fact that they had both seen the same thing was fascinating.


	7. Where it Begins

At some point that evening, Leah had brought her teammate back to the BLU base, refusing to say a word about anything that had happened and yelling at anyone who came near the door to her room. Needless to say, most of the BLU mercs were intrigued (aside from the Spy, who just didn't care, and the Soldier who declared that Leah's yelling at 9 o'clock was an 'American right'.). Leah had remained in the room with Fiammetta for two hours, at which point most of the mercenaries were tired of wondering what all had happened out there. The girls had been dragged out of the room with Evgeniy's help and an impromptu meeting was about to take place.

The three rookies sat together, with Logan perched on the side of the overstuffed blue couch, Leah halfway on the floor and Joe the young spy seated fairly normally. The others sat around the room, minus Leah's mentor the BLU Soldier.

"So, what Fiammetta was saying is that she got attacked in the sewers by a strange creature and she had to go see Katja for help because she wanted a female doctor to look at her wounds. Can we go now?"

"Creature? Aye, nuthin' could live in there. Ye probably just saw a shadow." Aiden the Demoman offered, his feet propped up on the wall.

"You never know what you'll find beyond the Black Stump. Out in the bush?" The older BLU Sniper examined his face in a cracked, spotty mirror and sliced through the fuzz on his chin with his kukri.

"Little Pyro found an octopus?" Evgeniy asked, putting his baseball mitt of a hand on Fiammetta's head.

"With a person's head!" The young Italian-American protested, wriggling under the massive hand. As soon as she did say something, the entire room erupted into a cacophony of voices.

"Zat is impossible." The older Spy breathed out a puff of smoke, his back turned on the rest of the group.

"What kind of hoodoo have ya done, doc?" William the Engineer turned towards Heilwig, lifting his goggles slightly.

"Vhy do you assume it is my fault?!" Heilwig demanded, looking like he hadn't slept in three days.

"WHO DRANK THE LAST BEER?!" The BLU Soldier looked almost exactly the same as his RED counterpart, most likely because they attended the same imaginary psychotic boot camp. He apparently had been ignoring the entire conversation and was only concerned about the lack of food and drink in the fridge.

"OI! Use yer inside voice, ye glaikit bastird!"

Fiammetta started yelling in Italian. Most of it was gibberish she made up to make herself heard over the roar rather than actual words.

"Hey, how long has our Pyro been a girl? Is that a recent thing, or has she always been a girl?"

"Dagnabbit, son, pay attention!"

"Hey, nuts to you, overalls!" The BLU Scout wasn't seated close enough to William to slap him, so he tried to lean over the Sniper to do so.

"Watch out, you spastic little gremlin!" The Sniper shoved the Scout back. He was starting to regret sitting in the middle.

"Come on, man, back me up! I gave you cookies!"

"You ever watch Dr. Spock on Star Trek? Because if you don't shut your cakehole, you bloody idiot, I'll be happy to demonstrate his Vulcan sleeper hold."

"Wait, Snipes, you watch that geek show?"

Heilwig stood up abruptly and rushed out of the room as fast as he possibly could. Evgeniy shook his head slightly and followed the young doctor. He knew exactly where to find the young man whenever he got too stressed. The uproar stopped for only half a second before the BLU Scout tackled the Engineer and the two ended up fighting on the floor.

The hallway and operating theater were largely undecorated, walls the same color white as everything else. In stark contrast to the insanity that everyone else lived in, everything in Heilwig's operating theater was the same condition it had been in when he first arrived. All the drawers and tables were polished to a perfect shine, the floor had absolutely no scuffmarks, and the bottles and books had all been stacked according to size.

"Doktor…" Evgeniy started, watching the young man frantically check the arrangement of his small collection of books. His partner ignored him (that was fairly common, Heilwig tended to block out the world during an episode like this) as he organized his books by author. Evgeniy opened his mouth to say something, but immediately decided against it. The others had attempted to interrupt one of Heilwig's little 'rituals' before, and it had just made things so much worse. The best thing to do was to let him do it and just be there for him when he felt that he wanted to talk about it.

It didn't take very long. As soon as he was done, his shoulders slumped and he let out a sigh. Without a word, he turned on his heel and strode over to his bed so he could literally collapse onto it. Evgeniy reached out a hand to touch his friend on the shoulder. There wasn't much he could do; he didn't know how to help his young friend.

They sat there for a little while, Heilwig groaning quietly in the background. "I did it again."

"Is okay, Doktor."

"I am better zan zis."

"Doktor, your pills…"

"I hate zem. I cannot sleep at all…and ze other ones just make me hate me."

He plopped his head back down on the bed and groaned again.

"Um…Grüß Gott."

Heilwig turned around to see the RED Medic girl standing there, something obviously on her mind. He got up immediately and fixed his hair. No one should have to see him like that. Evgeniy looked back and forth from the two of them and decided he wouldn't ask.

"Grüß Gott, yourself. Ah…Wie heissen Sie?"

"Ich heisse Katja. Kah, ah, te, yot, ah."*

Right, it was Katja. He'd only heard her name in the words of others.

"Heilwig, I need your help."

"What?" He asked, pretending to look busy while washing his hands for the seventh time.

"I'm going into ze sewer."

The hair on the back of Heilwig's neck stood on end. Why would she want to…?

"I need to see vat hurt your Pyro, but I vould rather have someone else vith me. I vould take Leah, but she seems busy."

"If it's dangerous, why not go with Leah?"

"Vell…see, I vant to see vat it is, and Leah vould probably just destroy it…and I need someone who isn't as hysterical. I need someone calmer."

He was calmer than Leah? He would have laughed out loud at that, if she knew how many issues he had…

Heilwig looked up to actually speak with her. The only thing that had really changed about her was that her hair was down instead of in the usual ponytail, but she seemed radically different somehow. She was dressed in a casual vest and tie, just like he'd seen her yesterday, but she seemed almost delicate now. Her shoulders were hunched slightly and her head was down slightly, as if it embarrassed her to need help with anything. It was hard to think of her as delicate at all. Her broad shoulders gave way to fairly well-toned arm muscles that were now crossed under her ample…

Heilwig turned away and blushed fiercely. Why was he staring at her?! His thoughts were becoming incredibly intrusive.

"So…vill you?"

She hadn't seen his terrible social blunder. Good…

"Ja, if you really vant me zere."

She smiled warmly and hugged him. He blushed again. They barely knew eachother, why was she doing this? Clearly something like this was meant for close friends or couples; this was much too personal…

He breathed out when she let go. He was already much too anxious, doing this would just make it worse and he didn't know why he said yes at all. Maybe it was just that desperate, vulnerable look on her face. She'd been so adventurous the other day, the thought that this situation was enough to make her so quiet…well; it had to mean a lot to her.

She took him outside where her team's Pyro(from what he could tell, it was the older one) was waiting. It seemed to be staring at him. It was probably suspicious. Either way, it led them both toward the RED Team base, humming a jaunty little tune.

The RED Soldier stomped out of the building and glared at Heilwig.

"Now, listen, you little cupcake. Don't touch anything down there. I don't want your BLU filth all over the clean, American waste, is that understood?"

"Clean waste is an oxymoron, though, correct? Is it really possible to…?"

The American continued speaking; ignoring anything Heilwig had to say.

"AND, for your information, that goes for my trusty sidekick Bucky, here." He put his hand on Katja's shoulder and bore a proud, but clearly insane, grin. Katja frowned slightly, trying to figure out when she'd become his sidekick and why he felt the need to call her 'bucky'.

Before Katja could ask, the Soldier started speaking again. "A hero must pass on his lineage and power to a younger generation! Sun Tzu said that. Didn't he, Bucky?"

Katja smiled nervously and nodded emphatically. There wouldn't be any arguing with him. Heilwig grimaced for a few seconds.

"And…you don't vant me hurting her?"

"I don't want your BLU to rub off on my sidekick. A proud American spirit, she is, even if she did get born in Germany. There's nothing wrong with Germans, unless they're Nazis, at which point everything is wrong with them, but America is the greatest country on Earth." With whatever he was talking about said, the Soldier left, still talking to himself about who-knows-what.

"Vy do you put up vith zat?" Heilwig asked, shaking his head.

"Ze team tells me it is a lost cause. Apparently he does not listen to reason. I just try to humor him because it is much easier."

Heilwig wondered how she survived with the group of REDs. Everyone in BLU knew that REDs were crazy, violent hayseeds. Granted, Heilwig's experience with girls, and country girls at that, was extremely limited.

The Pyro led them both behind the base toward a dilapidated little building that looked like it could have been a shed at some point. The paint was peeling, the metal roof had massive rust patches and the door had several massive gashes in it. The inside looked only a little better than the outside. It was furnished with an old table and two chairs in one corner, a set of rusty tools hanging off the wall and a chest of drawers that smelled like mold. This was apparently the Pyro's little 'clubhouse', judging from the flamethrower lovingly propped up on the table, the balloon unicorn hanging off a chair and the small collection of crayon drawings that had been pinned to the walls in an effort to cover up the peeling yellow wallpaper. It motioned towards the far left corner, where a manhole sat, attached to an old copper valve that had turned a bright green from oxidation.

"Vat is zis?"

The Pyro said something that Heilwig honestly couldn't understand. This particular Pyro spoke a different way than his own. He could understand Fiammetta's mumbling because he'd been around her enough, but this was different.

This was the same 'person' who locked him in a building and set it on fire. He shivered a little. Katja poked her head down the manhole as Heilwig was trying to shake off his anxiety. She surfaced after a few minutes.

"I think he says it is for maintenance on ze sewer."

The creature looked up, squinting at the light. It only saw the vague outline of someone standing at the entrance to the sewers. Some long-dormant civil part of its normally reptilian brain decided this was a female, a lovely young lady standing at the sewer entrance. She was with a young man, although he was incredibly slight of figure. A growl came to the creature's throat. Through some strange instinct, the creature could tell that they were standing with a Pyro.

"Hello? Is anyone there? Are you hurt?" Katja called out, hearing the growl. She had no idea what this creature roaming around the water could be, but if it was animal in any way, being injured would make it defensive. "I am a doctor. I can help you, ja?"

What happened next was peculiar. Instead of a growl, a noise echoed through the tunnel that sounded almost like speech. It was garbled, uneasy, as if someone were trying to speak through a throat with torn-up vocal cords and a mouthful of marbles.

"Dkkkktrrr…"

The hair on the back of Katja's neck stood on end and she bit down on her lip. The older RED Pyro began attempting to convey something to her with a combination of excited mumbles and frantic arm movements. Heilwig breathed in deeply and mentally tried to concentrate on something other than his desperate need to do something like wash his hands exactly seven times just to make sure everything would be okay.

"Get my brother and Ginger…tell them to bring medical supplies and weapons, just in case." Even with fear nibbling on the edge of her mind, she had to be rational. Taking too many people inside would scare it. Animals became violent when they were cornered…

Of course, that would be a bad idea if this were a person, but the others would be just outside and she could always heal herself.

The Pyro stared. In the altered mental state provided by the mask, Katja was a small, frail creature that needed to be defended. That was how this particular Pyro saw the world. The other members of RED were fragile little sprites, so easily subject to danger, even in the happy utopia of the Pyro's mind. The members of BLU were naughty and didn't play nicely with the RED fairies.

"Pyro, please listen. I promise I vill be okay." The fairy lady known as Katja smiled as she motioned to the scary cave in the garden of lollipops. Reluctantly, the Pyro agreed. She could fix the little scratches they got from playing too hard. If she skinned her knee she could handle it.

When she was alone, Katja bent down to examine the water. It was fairly clean, there didn't appear to be any leeches or other unsightly critters in it. Thank goodness for that. Katja knew full well she couldn't delay this any longer, so she lowered herself into the water. A tiny shiver passed through her body when the water hit her waist and seeped past her coat into her shirt. It was certainly chilly. Katja hoped she wouldn't have to stay long. Water at just 10 °C could kill in about an hour, if she remembered that college lecture correctly.

"Hello?" Katja spoke tentatively, not sure if she could reason with the mysterious sewer being. The lack of a reply made shivers run down her spine. It could be anywhere…

Heilwig followed behind slowly, dreading the idea of trudging through the sewer water. It was disgusting, cold, wet…

"How do you feel?"

"Out of control." Heilwig answered quietly.

A sudden movement in front of them caught both doctors off guard. It was hard to see just what it was, but it was rapidly changing color from purple to red in a frenzied manner. Before Heilwig could react, something grabbed him around the waist, digging sharp needles into his skin. It continued its assault, wrapping a limb around his neck and trying to strangle him to death. Katja was dumbfounded briefly as the arms dragged the BLU forward. When she finally managed to process what was happening, she charged forward and leapt on the being's back, producing a hidden syringe from her pocket and grabbing the creature's appendage. She pressed down, releasing the contents of the syringe. The appendages relaxed slightly, dropping Heilwig into the water below. It jerked around with Katja clinging to its back like an expert bull rider, but it eventually managed to shake her, sending her crashing into Heilwig.

She was heavy…he honestly should have expected that. Katja wasn't exactly a waif, but he hadn't been expecting it. Katja rolled off of him and landed in the water again.

"Heh..hehe." Heilwig started chuckling to himself, before he launched into full-fledged hysterical laughter. He had no idea why he was even doing it, but he couldn't stop himself. It was late at night, he was knee-deep in water with a woman he hardly knew and there was a snarling monster in the sewers. Katja either didn't notice or was just ignoring him while she shook her head like a wet dog.

"Vhat vas zat?" He asked, as soon as he had composed himself.

"Etorphine. It is made from some relative of the poppy…it is fairly new. Ve should investigate quickly; the dosage was just an estimate." Katja gave him a little grin. If the situation hadn't been so absurd, he might have found that extremely annoying, but in the topsy-turvy world where monsters lived in the sewer, it was funny.

Heilwig turned on the flashlight and finally got a decent look at the creature. It resembled a man from the waist up, wearing the remains of a white dress shirt that had been soaked through with blood and ink. From the waist down, it had a mass of tentacles, still twitching and writhing even as the creature they belonged to wavered in and out of consciousness. Each tentacle was a sickly pale-pink color and lined with little glowing dots. That must have been where the light had come from. Among these tentacles was a pair of much longer ones, with a spade shape at the end.

Katja was busy inspecting the face, opening the eyes and mouth to check on the creature. The mouth was filled with thin, curved teeth and the eyes were relatively normal. It did seem to have the remnants of a mask on its face, though it was hard to tell in the murky water.

"Katja…what is it?"

The man-squid's eyes opened slightly and regarded Katja with confusion, and then it seemed to relax when it saw Heilwig. Heilwig turned on the flashlight and aimed it up, away from the being's face so he wouldn't disturb it. Despite the fact that it was covered in blood, ink and water, Heilwig could faintly see the remains of a blue pin-striped jacket draped around the being's arms and shoulders.

"Katja, it's…"

Both doctors experienced a shiver down their spines at the exact same moment. The balaclava and suit suggested that it had once been a Spy…or perhaps it had just eaten one and stolen the clothing. Neither explanation was particularly comforting.

"Ve have to get him out of here and call someone. Zis is dangerous…here, he likes you better, hold zis end."

Katja slipped the being's arms over Heilwigs shoulders and attempted to secure the many tentacles that were still wiggling slightly despite the sedative. On the inside, Heilwig was about ready to vomit, whine, and scream, all in that order. It was wet, cold, disgusting…

By the time the two emerged, being in tow, a small crowd had gathered around. Tavish DeGroot stepped towards the door with a large sword in his hands and, surprisingly, no alcohol smell at all.

"Git yer hands off…" Tavish started, before he got a good look at Heilwig and snickered. "Ye had me worried, lad, I thought ye said she was in danger! Look at him! She's nae exactly a wee lass, 'specially not against Skinny Malinky Longlegs, here!"

"Not from him. Heilwig is fine…for a BLU, at least." Katja laughed in spite of everything.

"What's adae wi' you two, scurrying aboot in the sewers? Got a lumber?"

Heilwig opened his mouth to say something and put up a finger to try and emphasize his point, but he honestly couldn't think of anything to say to that.

"Ye know, muckin' aboot…? Are ye werrin that high collar tae hide your nookie badges?"

Heilwig put up his hands. "Vait, vait! I do not understand. Say ze first zing again…?"

"Have you two been, uh…y'know?" Nathan made awkward gestures until both Medics had turned the same shade of red as Katja's tie.

Heilwig covered his face with his hands. "Of course not! Ve vere down zere risking our lives and you…" For a few seconds he looked like he was considering strangling the motormouthed RED, but he relaxed.

"Someone…someone take care of zis. I have…I have something to do." He unloaded the still-twitching man-squid into Katja's hands and ran to the base, one hand on his stomach and the other clamped over his mouth.

Katja shook her head. Everyone gathered immediately went silent when they saw the creature. It had been well-obscured by the two doctors, but now they could see the waving gelatinous tentacles and lazy, listless expression on the being's face.

"So…help me vith zis?" Katja raised an eyebrow.

**Some of you may recognize Etorphine as 'M99'. It's used on Dexter, apparently. It's actually very strictly controlled and only available to veterinarians, and veterinary-strength M99 is fatal to humans. **

'**Kah ah tey yot ah' is a phonetic pronunciation of German letters. She's spelling her name, but that's roughly the way it would sound.**

**And the tentaspy in question is much more squiddy than spy. The color changing is common among squids. **


	8. Conflicts of Interest

The strange new discovery was restrained, up to a point. There wasn't much they could do about all those tentacles. The operating theater was abuzz with activity. Diethelm was excitedly ranting and raving about the implications of a discovery, while Katja was trying to figure out just how this person ended up like…well, that.

He was slightly sedated, just to keep him from attacking anyone, but that didn't stop him from displaying erratic behavior. The words that came out of his mouth were hard to understand. His throat was raw, as if he'd been screaming for hours, and Katja was no expert when it came to French. Even when he did manage to say something vaguely understandable, it was by no means coherent.

As for Heilwig, he had already decided he was going to stay far away from anything that had been in a sewer. After washing his hands the proper number of times and taking the hottest shower he could stand, he had finally decided to return to his operating theater to see if he could find an explanation in his books. He was having a little bit of a mental crisis…there had to be a logical explanation for everything. This had to be a normal occurrence. His books betrayed him; there was nothing remotely close to what he'd seen.

Neither of them spent any time resting. Some of their teammates were hitting the sack early, either out of confusion or a real need to sleep, but the doctors of both colors were tirelessly working. Heilwig had been buried in a book since his last shower and Katja was spending some quality time with the wriggling tentacle man.

"Can I keep it?" Leah was busily sitting on a stretcher off to the side of the room.

"No you can't keep it!" Katja lifted a free hand to shake her fist at Leah. Her other hands was in use, being nibbled on by the loopy humanoid. He wasn't biting hard enough to puncture her glove, let alone her skin (mostly due to the muscle relaxants he'd been pumped full of), but it still didn't make the sensation any more pleasant. It kept him from chewing on the medical equipment and distracted him from the procedures at hand, so it helped in some measure.

"What time is it, Katja?" Diethelm asked from somewhere behind or underneath the Tenta.

"Ahh….21:00." She answered, leaning back to see the clock. Someone knocked on the door a few times, before they decided to open it anyway. Nathan walked in with a pizza box in his hands and an almost sick expression on his face.

"Hey, Kitty. You…you gonna spend all night here?"

"Yes. I am not done yet. Just like my time back in college. I often spent entire nights in the library." She raised a finger. "That was my secret to good grades. Always studying."

"Yeesh." Nathan looked over the array of snacks that Katja had placed out for herself on a table. Some of these were already being scarfed down by the bottomless pit of a BLU Soldier.

"So, what did you want to ask?"

"Here, you want the rest of the pizza? I kind of stuffed myself and Demo hates mushrooms."

"Oh, sure, we'll take it. If Diethelm doesn't eat it, I vill. Leah, get out of here before I call our Engineer!"

"I'm not leaving until I get a slice of that pizza."

As for the BLU base, Heilwig had been enjoying the quiet evening alone with his books until-

"MEDIC!"

The booming voice of the male BLU Soldier was unmistakable. Knowing who the voice belonged to didn't help all that much. Heilwig still leapt out of his skin.

"Is Private Leah still over there?"

"Probably. I don't know…" Heilwig shook his head. "…I'll go get her."

It was better just to do it rather than argue about it. He got up from his desk and started to walk leisurely over to the other team's base. This was really starting to affect his ability to work…it was hard to think straight sometimes.

"What the hell is up with all these BLUs?!" Nathan demanded, glaring at the BLU Medic as he walked in. Heilwig wasn't affected by the glare and merely stared back boredly.

"I am getting our Soldier back." Heilwig answered coldly.

"Oh good, I was going to send someone to ask you. I couldn't manage to convince her to leave myself any I thought since you two were friends…oh, and thank you for your help earlier today."

"Katja, please stop. Look, I respect you as a training physician, but I can't associate with you. Especially if you're going to drag me into situations like that one."

"Excuse me?"

"Please do not act so sweet and kind, Katja. You are on a different team than I am. This isn't a game, Katja? Do you think this is a game?"

"Do I think vat is a game? Do you mean this job? Vell, no, I don't think this is a game. I just thought that maybe we at least should be civil to one another outside of battle. And I needed help."

"We can't! Besides, that was extremely stressful for me! Do you have any idea any idea any idea…"

Heilwig immediately clamped his hands over his mouth with an expression of absolute horror on his face. Dear God, it was worse than he thought. He had been suppressing the tics since he was little, why did they spring back to the surface so easily now?

"Heilwig, did you just…?"

He shook his head emphatically. No, he was perfectly fine. There was nothing wrong with him. He wasn't about to start up the verbal tics again.

"No. NO. There is absolutely nothing wrong with me."

"If you need someone to talk to-" Katja began slowly.

"I don't need to talk to anyone. I am perfectly fine. I just…I need to get out of here. Leah, your mentor wants you. Now."

"Wow. Did you spit in his schnitzel?" Leah asked, her hands in her pockets and a sour expression on her face.

"I don't think I did anything!" Katja put her hands up defensively. "Hmm…his anxiety is worrisome. Has he ever had an anxiety attack?"

Leah shrugged. "Uh, well, I've heard that when he gets upset, he organizes things. Like, he takes all the books out of his bookshelf and puts them all back in…oh, and he always makes a big deal about his eggs. He freaks out if the egg yolk breaks and gets in the egg whites. Never heard him do that, though."

"I see. Well, you'd better get back to your base. I'll handle all this."

Tavish watched the squid-man with a curious expression. He could've sworn he'd seen something like that before. Not in person, of course, but...

"Lass, have ye seen Sniper?"

"Huh? Uh, probably in his 'nest' again. Do you think he might have seen anything from up there?"

"Yea, thass wha' Ahm thinking." He got up and left his bottle behind in the room. He'd need a clear head for this. On the way outside, he tried to think of where he'd seen something like that before. The old Pyro liked to draw it, but he knew very well what it was before that.

When he reached the battlements, Mundy was already there, looking through a tattered, waterlogged old book. It sent chills down Tavish's spine.

"Where did ye get that?"

The Sniper frowned. "Found it fossickin' in the sewers. You suspicious of the little Jillaroo?"

"Whuh? Oh, the wee one? Nae, she's just bloody unlucky. Ye think she's suspicious?"

Mundy thought about that for a minute. No, Katja wasn't remotely suspicious. Despite the fact that their last brush with a female mercenary was less than pleasant, Katja seemed nothing like that. She was gentle to her patients and seemed fairly sane.

"Ye think it's her again? I thought she got arrested?" Tavish asked, looking stonefaced.

"I don't know mate, I don't know."

Elsewhere, Katja wondered just what the creature was thinking. The former BLU stared off into space, looking as if he were trying to wrap his head around some abstract thought. His mind, corrupted by drugs and madness, wouldn't work the way he wanted it to, but he was starting to think back on what he knew before the world suddenly seemed so strange.

"Yevpraksiya."

Katja almost leapt out of her skin when she heard the creature talk. What did it say…?

"Serafima Yevpraksiya."

What did that mean? It was a name…but who did it belong to?

The door opened slowly with a creak.

"Docteur, do you mind…?"

Damien jumped backwards when he saw the creature. His blood ran cold in his veins when he saw the face of the creature, a face that slightly resembled his own.

Katja turned around for half a second and immediately rushed to the Spy when she noticed he was bleeding.

"Oh, mademoiselle, you needn't…"

"Nein, nein! I can handle this! Please! I may not have a lot of hands-on experience, but I have done a lot of studying…"

Damien cringed slightly, but offered his hand to Katja anyway. She immediately got to work cleaning and treating it with the utmost care. She seemed completely harmless. Maybe she was…

Damien smiled slightly. Honestly, this doctor was just a teenager in the body of a 26-year-old woman. She was innocent and naïve, certainly not dangerous in any way.

"Are you afraid of doctors, Herr Spy?" She asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"…Oui." That was the easiest way to describe it. It was female doctors, to be completely specific. The Demoman and Sniper were familiar with the last female Medic, but it was Damien who had been the most involved with her. It made sense now. Mundy didn't really care either way, and Tavish seemed to dote on the 'wee farm girl', but discovering that she was female had just brought up quite a few bad memories.

Maybe she wasn't all that bad. Damien chuckled when her eyes started to flutter out of exhaustion. That was honestly cute. As much as she protested being young, she could fool someone pretty easily.

"There…all better!" Katja exclaimed happily, before yawning. "Aaahh…oh, Damien…have you ever heard of the name 'Serafima Yevpraksiya'?"

Damien froze. What did she just say?

"Where did you hear that name?"

"He said it, just now. That was all he said…do you know who it is?"

"It sounds familiar, though I cannot place where I've heard it. If I remember, I'll let you know." Lying was easy. She didn't need to know; it wasn't her business. It was better for her not to get involved anyway.

"You should be getting to sleep, mademoiselle. Combat resumes tomorrow."

Damien stood up and left the room, leaving Katja pondering. She reached over and turned on a beat-up little radio seated on her desk. It wasn't fancy by any means, but it got enough of a signal to play music.

_Near the village, the peaceful village, the lion sleeps tonight. Near the village, the peaceful village…_

It didn't help her exhaustion at all. Sure, it was an upbeat little song, but it was about sleeping… Sleep would be very nice. Combat was going to resume tomorrow as if nothing had ever happened.

_Don't fear, my little darling. Ingonyama ilele…He, ha helelemama…don't fear my little darling…_

Katja mentally cursed her own body functions and promised herself that she was going destroy the radio…but that seemed a little too harsh. Maybe she would do it tomorrow. Yeah, that sounded good.

Damien slipped back into the room silently. There was Katja, seated with her legs propped up over the left armrest, her arms folded slightly across her stomach and her glasses sliding off her nose. She was fast asleep with the sounds of Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen's 'Midnight in Moscow' playing in the background. Making sure not to disturb her, he slipped a single manila envelope labeled 'Anna Kensington' into one of the drawers of her desk.

**You might know that song from Lion King. It started as a song by Solomon Linda, was covered numerous times and has the most ingenious little way of getting stuck in your head. I imagine that Katja's quite prone to ear-worm.**

**But back to the notes…looks like we have a Spy with a torrid history! Sniper and Demoman seem to be in on this as well. Just so you know, Demo also has an important part in this fic. It's just a shame he doesn't have a lot of stories about him. It seems like people ignore him quite a bit. He's a fun character with a lot of personality.**

**We get more Katja-Heilwig bickering. I actually don't intend to pair them up. It seems a little forced to write them as having anything more than a love-hate/respect-despise relationship. It honestly bugs me when stories immediately pair two people up as a couple and they have no chemistry at all. This –is- a horror story, so love lives aren't on the menu. **

…**Well, aside from the fact that Spy's probably had quite the X-rated past. **


	9. Powder Keg

Damien found himself unable to sleep again. Whenever he couldn't sleep, it was always for the same reason. It was an unnerving little dream about an equally jarring person that he hoped to put behind him. It had been a few years ago…she might have been 40, he was fairly certain he was 32 at the time. Sometimes one affair just ran into the other. Ever since he'd started his little tryst with the BLU Scout's mother, he'd pretty much forgotten about the ladies he'd left behind.

God, what was her name? Wasn't it 'Serefima'?

They met at Hydro, of all places. She was the Medic, and while she was good at her job, she was unnerving. It wasn't just Damien; Tavish and Mundy thought the same way about her. She was like Jekyll and Hyde, one minute she could be perfectly gentle and the next minute she could be the most abusive woman you'd ever meet.

Their little liaison started out simply enough. It wasn't even a formal relationship; it was more of an occasional fling. The Spy generally ignored her aggression, since she kept it on the battlefield. She had a peculiar fascination with the most debilitating and disfiguring of disorders and injuries, but it wasn't as though she harmed anyone with it. The team brushed it off, and so did Damien. Everyone had some dark little secret. If she had some kind of strange fetish, well, that was her business. As time passed, however, Damien noticed that her little 'quirks' were starting to seem more like psychotic fixations.

Serafima seemed to loathe other women with a passion. She would grow enraged at other women, even if they so much as glanced at Damien. As he spent more time around her, he started to realize just how deeply-rooted her fanaticism and love of the grotesque was. The worst part was discovering her journal. The entire leather-bound book was nothing more than a detailed, elaborate sadistic fantasy about dissecting a live person and grafting other body parts onto them like some sick jigsaw.

He ended the relationship, or at least thought that he had. The Russian wouldn't take no for an answer. She had chased him into a sniping outpost and pinned him up against the wall with a dark glint in her eye. She smelled like rubbing alcohol and formaldehyde, and the scent invaded his nose when she forcefully kissed him. She had always been extremely forceful, extremely dominating. It was never about proving herself in front of men; it was always about being better than everyone else.

He sat up in his bed and reached for a cigarette. A little nicotine and a cup of tea might calm his nerves. The Frenchman retied his bathrobe and walked out of his room, only to hear noises in the kitchen. He recognized the voices almost instantly. It was Katja's brother and that strange redheaded Pyro. Sure enough, when he entered the room, there they were. Zach, looking as though he might fall asleep right on the spot, was fumbling around in the fridge for something. Lukas was darting around, trying to push Zach away enough so he could get to the food inside.

He would leave them to their antics. Tea was out of the question at this point. A noise from the operating theater made him suspicious. He slipped silently into the little operating theater and gazed at the mutant that the new girl had found. Katja was surprisingly gentle towards the creature, caring only about its wellbeing. The name that the creature had mentioned earlier that evening stirred up quite a bit of his past. That creature…how did it know who Serafima was? It couldn't be…

Damien looked over the the creature's suit jacket.

A 'SpaceChem' pin…

Damien pinched the edge of the man-creature's mask and lifted it slightly, revealing the man's hair. It had been dirtied up with blood and muck, but the original blonde color was still there. Chills ran down his spine. He lifted the ripped mask a little more and his breath caught in his throat. This former man bore a tiny little scar under his left eye.

"Baptiste…" Damien covered his mouth to keep himself from crying out. Baptiste had been the BLU Spy that Damien had shared a rivalry with for years.

"Serafima."

"What about her?"

"See you in hell."

"What?"

"The enemy has captured the control point."

Damien sighed in relief. Baptiste just seemed to be speaking aloud about the things he knew. There was no coherence to it; he was just saying it as he remembered it.

"Going to get to ze light. Climb up ze shelves." Baptiste babbled, reaching out to touch Damien's face with his tentacles. How did those even work?

"Non, non, calm down." Damien gently lifted part of his old rival's suit jacket to investigate the tentacles. It was, indeed, a mass of tentacles that looked as if it had been torn from a massive octopus. Baptiste's torso had been haphazardly stitched to this mass of wriggling appendages and the skin around it was swollen and red, with blood and fluid leaking from the tissues. Damien wasn't a doctor, but that certainly looked like it was getting infected. How did he survive so long like that?

The massive operating theater had been a storage room before they decided to move things around. Katja's current room had once been the operating theater, despite the somewhat secluded location of the room and the size restraints. Damien silently rapped on the door to Katja's room and got a series of animal noises as a response. After a minute or two, Katja answered the door, with her hair an explosion of ringlet doll curls around her head and her outfit consisting of a pair of men's pajamas. Her round glasses were seated on her nightstand and her fragile-looking little dove was seated on her shoulder.

"Gruss Gott…" Katja yawned widely, but had the courtesy to cover her mouth.

"Mademoiselle, the creature…I think something is wrong. I think it is getting sick."

Katja's eyes shot open. Damien remembered how Serafima had acted when someone was in grave danger. The glint in her eyes was always devilish and her mouth would always break into a slight, sinister grin. Katja's face was the polar opposite, a mixture of worry, sadness and the slightest hint of self-loathing.

"Oh, no. I thought I made every precaution. I thought I had disinfected everything, could I have forgotten something?" She looked over her patient. "I can only wonder as to why he didn't die of sepsis. Look at this…" Katja started to wipe blood off of the creature with a towel. Baptiste gave a slightly guttural groan of pain.

"I know, I know, when something swells, it always hurts." She cooed softly, locating a health pickup and applying the gel to the creature's wounds.

"How are you so gentle?"

"Was? Eh, what?"

That was perhaps a weird question.

"Madamoiselle, _why_ are you so gentle? I've known some medics to be quite rough."

"All patients must be treated with gentleness and care. Being rough is for fighting…healing requires one to care about their patient, I think. The kind of person who would use their authority to harm someone is just…disgusting."

Katja was nothing like the vicious older woman who had been his tormentor. She was young and annoying, yes, but perhaps he had judged her too early.

"What were you doing around here at night? You were certainly in the right place at the right time but…why?"

"I think I know this person. Or at least I used to know him. If I am correct, he works at Hydro. He and I used to be mortal foes."

"Wh..what? You know, we will discuss this later. Right now…right now he seems to be better." She started to wrap the injury meticulously.

She was annoying. Even with that in mind, she wasn't that bad. Young, naïve, annoying and a bit of a country bumpkin, but by no means dangerous.

"Are you sure you have this handled?"

"Yes. He should be fine. We do need to tell someone about this, though."

"I will contact the Administator in the morning. I apologize for waking you at this hour."

"Please, if it is for a patient, it does not matter. Come now, Steve, you have to get extra sleep." She rinsed her hands. The little dove on her shoulder made a noise akin to a purring. Damien left the room after she did, shaking his head slightly. He was worried for nothing, perhaps…

Sleep came easier that night for Damien and the others. The night was quiet, save for the rain that gently pounded on the roofs of both buildings.

Lukas awoke early in the morning to the sound of a cow lowing. For half a second he assumed that his sister was out in the fields assisting with a difficult calving until he realized that they weren't on the farm anymore. He smoothed his brown hair back down into some sort of order. Nathan shot up in bed when a second 'moo' came from outside.

"What was that?"

"That was a cow."

"Well, yeah, chucklenuts. I know what a cow is."

Lukas pulled open the window and waved his hands at the animal outside. "Pfui! Go on, get out of here!" The cow started to amble away listlessly as the two young men tried to wrap their brains around the situation.

"What time is it?"

"Time to wake up, I suppose."

The two young men walked off toward the showers, still trying to shake off the feeling of exhaustion that plagued them. They weren't the only ones starting their day at the break of dawn. It seemed as though everyone had trouble sleeping in that morning. There was unspoken, unacknowledged tension going on, and breakfast was a time of relative quiet.

Damien surveyed the team. Most of the newbies were seated with their mentors (save for Katja, who was being taught the ways of following another mercenary around and destroying things).

"Alright, lass. Ye're gonna want tae pay close attention to the sentries." Tavish kept one hand on Katja's shoulder and the other on a crudely drawn map of the fort.

"Pay attention to sentries." She repeated, squinting to try and comprehend the details of the napkin-map.

"The Scout's a wee nyaff…annoying wee bugger, he is. Like a lil bunny, eatin' up berries and nuts. Give 'em a good jag." Tavish mimed holding a syringe and giving someone a vaccination. "This is a jag."

"A 'jag'."

"Shouldn't we be concerned about skills?" Katja's equally inquisitive little brother asked, looking at Nathan.

"Please, it's something you're born with. We have to work on your attitude, though. They're BLUs! You gotta be mean to 'em!"

"But I'm already beating them, wouldn't that be enough?"

It was impossible to determine what the Pyros were mumbling about, but they seemed happy. Despite the fact that something was obviously wrong in the fort, things could have passed for normal.

As for the members of BLU, Leah was having a certain amount of difficulty waking Heilwig up. There had been a brief rain last night, and while there hadn't been any storm conditions, the water had effectively turned the ground into mud and sludge. Heilwig seemed bitter about yesterday, and the fact that the ground was now mud.

"Don't talk to me." Heilwig grumbled, in a ball under his bleached-white bedsheets.

"But we have to fight today. Come on, man…"

"Don't talk to me."

Leah grabbed the sheets and yanked them off of Heilwig's body. He was in full uniform, despite the fact that he was being a bump in the middle of his bed.

Fiammetta took a couple hits to her inhaler before slipping her gasmask on and attaching it to the oxygen in her tank. Only then she attempted to speak. When her gibbering failed to convince anyone, she took a running start and flopped face-first onto the Austrian's bed, nearly managing to catapult him off the mattress.

"Why would you DO that?!" Heilwig demanded, stepping away from the Pyro.

"Medic, you tell me what's wrong this instant. We have to work with one another, and if there's something wrong I insist on knowing."

"Grr…fine. Last night, I hid all the kitchen knives in a locked door because I'm terrified of murdering you all on an impulse. I have no reason to think this. I would never hurt any of you, and we get along just fine, but I cannot suppress these thoughts. I worry that one day I'll have suicidal impulses. Last night I washed my hands twenty times, exactly! I would know because I counted each and every time I did it! And yesterday, I stopped suppressing my tics. Does that answer your question?"

Leah looked surprised and a little bit hurt. Heilwig frowned. He wasn't intending to do that…

"Are you okay to fight today?"

"Yes. Yes. Just let me take my pills." He shook his head. All he needed to do was take the medication and get into battle. In the heat of things, he forgot everything. He felt normal. Maybe it was the intense physical activity, or the single-minded determination of it all, but when he only had to worry about the Intel and the team, it freed his mind.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, my amitriptyline should take care of everything."

He downed his pills and lightly slapped his cheeks to wake himself up.

"You're totally sure?"

"Yes! Of course I am! Trust me, it always gets better."

Fiammetta's voice was muffled by her mask, but from her tone, it sounded as if she agreed. As long as he performed in battle, his personal problems were of no concern. Besides, if it was really a problem, he wouldn't be here.

The three BLUs joined the rest of their team outside.

Tensions were high as the countdown began. Both sides were desperate to win, and being cooped up for a few days had made everyone restless.

Heilwig and Katja locked eyes. There was a mixture of annoyance, fury and just plain aggression on their faces. This fight was going to be good…

**Gaah! **

**The next chapter will be up ASAP! This chapter was starting to go on 6 pages; I didn't want to drag it out any longer.**


	10. Revelations

When the round started, everyone seemed to step off at the exact same time. With the exception of the Engineers, Spies and Snipers, both mercenaries scattered immediately. Medics trailed behind whatever class they were supporting this time, while Katja moved to overheal everyone in her vicinity. The mechanism was simple enough; charge up the meter and release the Uber.

The Administrator smiled, watching the excitement on Katja's face. She had made an excellent choice hiring this girl. Her credentials were certainly impressive. She had been in the top percentage of her class, constantly striving to be the best and she had inside information on just how protective the young woman could be when it came to protecting her patients. It was better to get her earlier, when she was fresh out of college and naïve. It was so easy to lose a potential mercenary when they had something else to do.

Lukas ran straight for the entrance of the BLU base, flanked by a cloaked Damien. Evgeniy's minigun spun to life with a roar as Lukas rushed by, catching the young man in the leg. Katja and Tavish were right behind him, with Katja looking particularly furious. There would be hell to pay for laying a hand on her little brother.

Running towards gunfire was not something Katja would have ever thought she would do. The earliest years of her life had been during the latter years of World War 2. She witnessed the aftereffects of conflict with her own eyes. She desperately had wanted to mend the casualties of war, and in a way she was doing just that. A war where no one died…it was a hard thing to comprehend.

"Are ye ready, lass?!"

Tavish broke her from her thoughts. They were going to have to take out the sentry in the intelligence room.

"J-Ja!" The Medigun backpack whirred to life with a start. The Ubercharge was an unusual feeling, making the world seem as though it was in slow motion. Katja's heart felt like it was rattling around in her chest cavity and epinephrine flooded her system. The world around her disappeared as tunnel vision set in and all sounds halted.

Tavish shouted something in front of her, but the only sound she could hear was her heart pounding like a bass drum in her ears. Katja let loose a raucous laugh from the back of her throat, just for the hell of it. Nothing else seemed to matter; the world was contained in a single moment. Sticky-bombs flew from Tavish's gun and bounced off the walls, with each bomb flickering on and off madly. The sentry's clicks and beeps were silenced immediately by a series of catastrophic noises. When the world returned to Katja, she heard a booming shout. Immediately she knew what class that had to be. The Demoman charged at the Russian man with a cry of triumph. Their guns produced an incredible cacophony of explosions and bullets. With the BLUs occupied, Katja grabbed the Intel and rushed out of the room with papers fluttering behind her.

Heilwig took off after her, knowing full well that he was vulnerable and she had a head start, but he was unable to control himself. Katja looked back for half a second and in that timespan Heilwig could have sworn he saw a devilish grin on her face. She was going to give him a hard time about this. He almost enjoyed it.

"Ah, the pampered little poodle!" Katja jeered, grinning at him.

"You childish little buffoon…" He hissed through his teeth. Something whizzed past his head, clipping his left ear. There was no pain or feeling of blood pouring from his wound. That RED was quite a shot…

Once Katja managed to reach the bridge, he sped up, knowing full well that once she was on her side, things would very likely swing in her favor. He didn't want to run into the faceless Pyro again. Not after he'd been locked in a burning building by the freak.

Without warning, both mercenaries were engulfed in flame. The flame registered as little more than a temperature increase to Katja, making her sweat a little bit, but Heilwig immediately felt the burn and got a lungful of the scent of burning skin and hair.

The BLU grabbed the railing of the bridge and threw himself into the pond below, hitting the cold water and mud with a splash. It was better than burning to death, he decided. He saw the faceless maniac peering over the side of the bridge, watching him intently. The pyromaniac turned away and ran behind Katja, mumbling excitedly.

That strange creature was like a cat. 'Look what I did, I killed a mouse!' He grinned at the thought and started to swim back to the base. Trying to enter the sewers was a risky idea unless he had someone with him. He ducked under the sewer entrance and moved swiftly inside, feeling like a drowned rat. He could hear the Administrator loudly scold them for losing the Intel.

"Maaaaaaggot!" Like a bolt from, well, the blue, Leah charged down the stairs and into the water below, still bellowing loudly. Well, that would work. He could use her skills just as easily as he could Evgeniy's.

"Leah! Raus, raus! Come with me!"

They were behind by one point. If RED got two more points…or if the time ran out before BLU could score…

He wasn't about to lose to a cheeky little lower-class citizen! Certainly not!

As Katja ran with her own Soldier across the bridge, Heilwig went underneath with Leah. He had a good feeling about this. BLU would certainly steal victory today…

The pent up anger and excitement made for a dangerous, violent match. In the end, BLU wrestled the victory away from RED when the BLUs managed to reconstruct their sentry and Heilwig activated a charge halfway out of the RED base.

Fiammetta and Leah linked hands and leapt in a circle, shrieking and whooping at the top of their lungs. Several members of RED threw down their hats. Jane Doe grabbed Katja in some sort of one-handed bear hug and shook his fist at the sky.

"We will win the war! I swear it! Come on, Bucky, we have plans to make."

"Ja?" Katja said, a little confused but unwilling to question it.

As the Soldier dragged her back into the base, Diethelm followed after, thinking about something.

"Katja, are you on any nonselective β-blockers?"

"No."

"Not that you know of, hm? Are you experiencing any panic attacks? Do you notice any heart palpitations? Headache? Anxiety?"

"No. Why do you ask?"

"Ubercharging is an untested procedure…Some people have been known to develop malignant hypertension, usually followed by retinal hemorrhage, increased intracranial pressure, hematuria and renal failure…"

"I would know if I was experiencing any of that by now, I think."

"Can I have a word with you, Miss Ulrike?"

No one had even heard Miss Pauling come up, but they all turned to greet her when they did. She was with an woman that might have been in her forties. The woman's laugh lines, crow's feet and the few strands of grey hair poking out of her blonde bun betrayed her age, but it was obvious she took good care of herself. She was BLU, and seemed uneasy surrounded by so much red.

"This is Anna Kensington. She worked with the Spy you said you discovered…"

Damien moved between Mundy and Tavish, raising an eyebrow. It was obvious at first glance that Anna looked nothing like Serefima. Her skin was pale, with sharper wrinkles due to years of heavy smoking, while Anna obviously had no such vice. Damien had been suspicious when he learned of the Medic working at Hydro…in some ways he was constantly looking over his shoulder…

Anna examined Katja from head to toe. It was obvious that Katja was a younger woman. She might have been 5'7", and her face was rather youthful. She had a short-waisted figure with curvy, wide hips, broad shoulders and a rather ample bust. The muscle definition was obvious on her arms and legs, and a farmer's tan peeked out from her sleeves. She was a worker, it looked like. She didn't seem too intimidating, but if she'd been hired, she had to have some kind of special talent. To her knowledge, female mercenaries weren't that uncommon. Their gender didn't matter.

It only mattered if they could do their job.

"Thank you very much for taking care of Jean-Baptiste." She smiled slightly.

"Of course. BLU or not, he needed urgent care. I think I did well…"

When Baptiste noticed Anna, he let out a garbled noise. Whatever it was, it was clearly joyous. He had an IV attached to one arm and every time he moved, he made it jiggle.

"Oh my goodness." She covered her mouth in horror.

"I said something similar when I saw him. But…with worse language."

"Is he okay?"

"I think he's delirious, and his body is obviously trying to reject the organ…"

"Oh you poor dear." Anna stroked her teammate on the head. He seemed to like it.

"The respawn should take care of him…how on Earth did he end up like this, though? And out here…?"

"I didn't want to try anything risky like sending him back to respawn until I knew exactly where he had come from. You are sure this vill vork?" Katja asked as the drugged and delirious squidman tried to chew on her fingers.

"Yes, I asked our Engineer, it should work…" Anna nodded emphatically. Damien mentally checked her off a list of people. She was much too different. He knew that Serefima had to have been behind this poor creature, but where was she?

He knew she wouldn't stop until she got her self-righteous revenge, and he had to work faster than her…he'd have to locate her before she could locate him.

And Katja. Oh goodness, if Serefima ever saw Katja…

"Are ye thinking about her, Damien?"

"Oui. If she managed to escape the Administrator, it would only be a matter of time."

"She would find you." The Sniper finished, not quite liking the idea of a madwoman loose.

"She would find us." Damien corrected. "Or Katja."

Yes, they were all involved. They had alerted the Administrator about Serefima's issues, gotten her in trouble. They would all be on her hitlist.

"Ye really think she'd go after the wee lass?"

"Think about it. If she ever saw me anywhere near another woman, especially a younger woman, she reacted angrily. It didn't matter if they were involved with me or not, they made her jealous."

"You're right...especially since Katja is a doctor." The Sniper rubbed his chin thoughtfully, the full realization setting in. Serefima had even gotten mad at him when she assumed he was getting too close to Damien.

"We have to find out where she is, fast. The fact that she actually did this means she's gotten worse. She wouldn't think twice about hurting someone who had never done anything wrong to her."

"Aye, it's settled then. We're all in deep shite."

"Hey, Heilwig, you got something in the mail."

Heilwig raised an eyebrow. How did anyone know he was here in the first place? He took the letter and package from the Scout and looked at the address. His heart skipped a beat. The letter had come from his parents. How did they manage to find him? He smiled slightly.

"Good news? Huh? What's in the box?"

"I believe it is time for another round of tetanus shots." Heilwig cooed, causing the annoying young man to scramble away from him. That always did the trick.

In the safety of his operating theater, Heilwig opened the letter as carefully as possible, almost afraid of damaging the precious meaning to the letter.

"_Heilwig Friedrich Wilhelm Luitpold Adalwin,"_

Heilwig smirked, a little embarrassed. If anyone else knew about his full name…or his pampered aristocratic upbringing in general, he would never hear the end of it.

"_It's been a long time, Heilwig. I want you to know that no matter what, we love you. After we heard you had been contacted by Mann Co, it was not hard to find you. When you left, we never stopped looking for you._

_Heilwig, I'm not angry at you for running away. I know I pushed you too hard. I didn't notice you were struggling and I'm very sorry. Your mother and I are very proud of you, no matter what you do. I want to make that as clear as I can._

_I know I was emphatic about you continuing the family business, but if you have another goal in life, I respect that. You are always welcome to come back home. I know I didn't notice your struggles and I'm truly sorry…_

_I wanted to give you my grandfather's pocketwatch later in life, but I think now is a great time to do this. You are, and will always be, my only son. Your mother and I love you deeply and want you to be happy."_

When Evgeniy came in, Heilwig's eyes were bleary behind his expensive glasses, but he still had a smile on his face.

"Doktor, are you alright?"

"I have never been better." His eyes were wet and barely containing the tears he wanted to shed. Immediately he found some of his stationary and began writing. This had to be immediate.

"_It was nothing that you did. I was the one pushing myself too hard, and I know that I would have even without your encouragement. I am not angry with you, either. I just wanted to try something new. I enjoy this job, but I miss you both very much. I think all of us miss home._

_I do want to come back some day to manage the winery. I have always wanted to follow in your footsteps. Honestly, I wanted to prove to myself that I was capable of doing things on my own. Even with your reassurance and support, I doubted myself. I could never hate you. _

_I miss you all, and it hurts me not to be there. Thank you…" _

Heilwig had to take a breath. There was just so much bottled up inside of him.

"…_for everything you have done, and thank you for the watch. Can we stay in touch?"_

Heilwig chuckled softly. The old, antique pocketwatch was exactly how he had remembered it. The silver chain had begun to tarnish over the long years; despite the meticulous care it had been given. If his family ever had an heirloom, this was it. He sorted through the items in the box. Among the frayed papers that had once been his very first violin composition was a bottle of his family's wine. White grape…his favorite kind. His parents knew him so well.

"Your parents make wine?"

"Yes. My father is a very famous winemaker; my mother is a pianist. I grew up very well. I suppose that one day I realized that my parents had been doing everything for me." He uncorked the bottle and let the familiar scent fill his senses. Oh, he had missed that.

"Is it good?"

Heilwig gave his friend a smirk. "Really? 'Is it good? Ask the Germans. 15% of our imports go there. Perhaps we should celebrate our victory tonight. I am eager to channel my lavish upbringing. Just for one night…then everyone can get back to being slobs."

**D'aww, Heilwig, 2Fort's very own genius billionaire ****playboy**** philanthropist. Of course, he's no playboy…he's probably afraid of girls, anyway. **

**Well, at least he's starting to loosen up. And even though Damien finds them all annoying, it seems he actually is concerned with his team's safety. **


End file.
